Chosen Ones
by ThatOnePairofGlasses
Summary: Neville Longbottom never thought he'd amount to anything. He always thought he'd be in the shadows of Harry Potter. Now that he's on the same pedestal, how will Harry react? Neville certainly hadn't expected with romance. (HBP-DH, Neville/Harry, and some Dramione)
1. Prologue

AN: I decided that I might as well post this story here too! I hope for some reviews :)

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Neville looked down at the black, skeletal pegasus he was riding. It was disturbing to him, the fact that just hours ago he couldn't see the stallion, and now he could. Thestrals could only be seen by those who had witnessed death, and Neville would've liked to go on in life without having witnessed that. Unfortunately, Bellatrix Lestrange had ruined his life once more by taking the life of her own cousin, Sirius Black. He still couldn't believe it had happened, it was all so sudden. Harry was currently having a meltdown over it. He wouldn't speak to anyone. All the half-blood could think about was his godfather's demise. All Neville could think about was his newfound ability to see everyone's steeds.

Minutes that felt like hours were spent in the air in complete silence before the first word was spoken. It was Luna who spoke first, in her normal dainty tone which Neville liked and respected more than anyone else there.

"I'm sorry about-"

"I don't want to talk about it right now." Harry quickly interrupted, holding his arm up to halt her speaking.

Neville was the furthest back, and he couldn't see Harry's face whatsoever, but he could tell it wasn't very happy.

"Sorry." Luna apologized to the boy in front, looking at the boy in the back with a somber expression. He returned the look.

The ride back to Hogwarts was full of silence, again. Dumbledore was waiting for them as they landed. His moon-rimmed spectacles sparkled sadly. His expression was blue. The students dismounted their Threstrals with the same solemn mood. No matter how grave Dumbledore looked, he never cried. Not when the muggle-borns became frozen by the basilisk, not when Cedric Diggory had died at the hands of Voldemort, and not when he had to watch as Professor Trelawny became fired by ex-Professor Umbridge. But now, at the death of Sirius Black, a prized student in his time, he allowed himself to cry two tears in his memory.

Harry looked down and cried silently. Ron and Hermione attempted to console him. Ginny and Luna stood by their Thestrals glumly. Neville hugged his Thestral melancholily.

Then, Dumbledore spoke. "Harry, Neville, I need to see you."

Neville had never entered Dumbledore's office. It was very interesting. It had pictures of the previous headmasters in every corner. Phineas Nigellus, the previous one, hung right above his seat behind his desk. Next to his desk was a birdcage. It held Fawkes the Phoenix, a bright, flaming falcon. There were two seats in front of the desk, one for Harry, and one for Neville. They took their seats side-by-side. The two wizards looked at each other, neither knowing why either was called there.

"I can tell by your puzzled expressions that neither of you know why you're here." Dumbledore commented. Harry shuffled in his seat.

"It's not about Sirius, is it?" Harry asked.

"No," Dumbledore replied. "It's about the prophecy. The one Voldemort was searching for. You see, Harry, the prophecy involves you..." he looked from Harry to Neville. " and Neville."

Neville just burst out laughing. The taller boy stood up and walked away, absolutely laughing his head off. No, Professor Dumbledore could not have been serious. There was no way in hell Neville Longbottom was the chosen one of any prophecy, even if he had to share the chosen-ness with a million other people. The only thing Neville was good at was gardening. He couldn't preform magic well at all. Sure he had a tragic enough past, but he didn't have the talent to uphold it. He could not be a chosen one. Harry Potter though? Sure, he could list a gazillion(was that even a number, he had no clue) reasons Harry could be a chosen one.

"No way." Neville chuckled. "Absolutely no way."

"Mr. Longbottom, please don't doubt yourself. A prophecy foretold by a seer will inevitably come true." Dumbledore tried to calm the teenager down.

"Oh? Which seer? Professor Trelawny?" he mocked her hand wringing.

"Yes, actually." Dumbledore smiled. Neville's mouth dropped. "Come, let us go back to when I hired her in the first place."

Dumbledore walked slowly towards the pensieve way in the back of the room. He motioned for the boys to follow him. Using his wand, he drew out a silver, glowing strand of hair. He dropped it in the pensieve, and they were all sucked into a memory.

It was a pub. It appeared to be the Hog's Head. There were only two people in the pub. They were Professor Dumbledore and Professor Trelawny. Dumbledore was cloaked and smiling, and Professor Trelawny appeared extremely buzzed. Neville suspected nothing to go wrong though, after all, Dumbledore would never do anything to Trelawny.

"Watch." Professor Dumbledore commanded them.

There was a knock at the door. Not like a knocking, but just someone knocked up against the door. What was surprising was that only Neville noticed and Harry and Dumbledore had not. Usually it was the opposite, much to his embarrassment. It didn't matter, though. Neville went on to investigate and paused at the door. He couldn't interact with it at all since he was in a memory, so he attempted to find other ways to look out through it. He found a peephole. What he saw next chilled him to the bone. It was Severus Snape listening in on the conversation.

Now everyone already knew Professor Snape was a Death Eater in the past, and apparently how long he lasted. Neville was completely unaware of the fact that it continued on through the recruitment of Professor Trelawny as a Divination teacher. It was rather startling to find Snape listening in on a prophecy. That meant he likely set it up himself, by accident or not. Harry would have freaked out if he saw this. Godfather death plus mortal enemy potentially dooming you wasn't a very good combination.

"Now Sibyll, can you tell me the prophecy of Voldemort?" the past Dumbledore asked Trelawny. She and Neville flinched at the name. You weren't supposed to say it.

"Yes, I believe so. There is quartering at Hogwarts, yes?" she asked, looking worried. So Trelawny was homeless before now? Neville thought. He wanted to ask Dumbledore if this was the truth, but he didn't want to draw attention to where he was, and, he needed to keep an eye on Snape.

"I assure you there will be boarding." the old Dumbledore nodded.

"Okay. Here goes." she muttered nervously, wringing her hands. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark one as his equal, but they will have powers the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives." she said in a spaced out manner, looking nowhere in particular. She gasped and came back into the real world.

Snape sneered and ran off. He knew it was Harry. That prophecy meant Harry. Neville knew it had to mean Harry. Neville was born July 30th.

Harry was born 31st, there was no way it was him. It said as the seventh month dies, by the time his birthday came around, the month hadn't only just begun to die he supposed. Also, he was sure He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named didn't mark him as his equal. Harry had a mark right on his forehead. The closest Neville got was a birthmark on his thigh.

But Neville didn't have long to think about it, as they came back to Hogwarts in less than two seconds. Harry was stunned, but Neville felt like he did coming into the office. He wasn't even disappointed, he knew it was going to be Harry, and it wouldn't involve him at all. So what was he there for? Emotional support? It all seemed like a joke.

"That prophecy, I am sure, meant the both of you. I was unsure of Neville at first-" of course. "but I have finally pieced it all together." Dumbledore spoke. "The both of you were born at the end of the seventh month. Neville, you were born on the thirtieth. Harry you were born at midnight on the thirty-first. Both of your parents fought Voldemort three times, and the both of you were marked as his equal." Dumbledore sensed Neville's suspicion and chuckled. "Yes, both of you. Voldemort may have personally come to kill you, Harry, but he sent Bellatrix to kill you, too, Neville. However, your hiding place was protected by a better secret-keeper."

"Sirius didn't mean to-" Harry grumbled quickly.

"I know. At any rate, Bellatrix had tortured your parents into insanity trying to get your location. That created an emotional scar, while Lily Potter's sacrifice made a physical one. I'll discuss that with you further tomorrow, Harry. However, I will address the powers the both of you have, that Voldemort does not. Harry, you have the ability to love. That is something he simply cannot find in him to do. Neville, my sincerest apologies, but I do not know what your ability is that he does not have." Dumbledore sighed. "That is all for now. I will begin training the both of you for your journey in taking down Voldemort once and for all. Thank you for your time. You are dismissed."

Harry and Neville sat across from each other in the boys' Gryffindor fifth year dormitory in deafening silence. The other boys were in the Great Hall eating dinner. They could have went, but Harry just wouldn't go, upset about falling into Voldemort's trap and unknowingly ending he wanted to save so badly, and Neville wouldn't leave Harry.

"Harry, you have to eat, come on." Neville pleaded with the boy sitting across from him just minutes ago. Harry just shook his head, looking down in anguish. He wouldn't budge, and if Harry wouldn't leave, Neville wouldn't either. So they both went to bed hungry.

For the whole night Neville was in bed, he couldn't believe what all had taken place. They had tried to save Sirius, but it was all a horrible mind trick, and they ended up setting him up for his demise. A demise at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange. Neville hated that woman. He really hated that woman. There was no-one except for her that he actually would use the word "hate" for, not even Professor Umbridge. Hate was a strong word, but it was warranted when the person you hate tortured your parents to the point where they don't even know your name and give you gum wrappers for Christmas. At least Harry had parents who remembered him in the afterlife. Neville's parents knew him as "the sweet little boy who gives them nice presents on Christmas."

Now that he thought about it, perhaps he did deserve the prophecy more. But then, it was a shock that he was foretold to be a chosen one. With Harry Potter at that. He always did feel a tinge of jealousy for the chosen one; it was actually amplified by his grandmother who wanted him to be better than Harry. He couldn't be jealous anymore though, they were equals now more than ever. God, it was going to be a wild ride from here.


	2. 1-Expecting Patronuses

Neville isn't really sure what to think anymore. He's trying to do better in his school work, and even building up the courage to get tutoring from Hermione. The Chosen One shouldn't be failing at magic, after all. However, he can't really change his grades. They're set in stone, he's already taken his OWL's, but that doesn't mean he can't try. He knows he'll be taking Herbology(O), but Charms(E), D.A.D.A(E), Transfiguration(A), and the horrible, horrible Potions... an F... are up for debate next year which he's sure he'll try harder in.

Unfortunately for him, Transfiguration was the only thing his grandmother actually cared about. Which, she shouldn't have cared after she learned he was part of a prophecy, but nope. All Augusta Longbottom could talk about in her reply to her grandson was how much he didn't deserve it. He still loved her, but he often felt she didn't return the feeling.

He's still trying to perfect his defensive spells and his Patronus charm. The charm especially. He doesn't even know what his is yet, it's just an orb of white light at the moment. Most of the time he did try to perform the charm, it was at night, under his covers. The bright light always disturbed the other boys, but he had to get practice in somehow. He even practiced outside on weekends.

"Expecto Patronum!" Neville yells, pointing his wand at a forty-give degree angle, hoping an animal made completely of light and happiness would shoot out. It doesn't. How disappointing. It was yet another ball of light. This time it has stubby legs, at least. So it's a four-legged animal.

Neville gave up. That was his fourth attempt that Saturday. He figured his problem was that he didn't have a happy enough memory. It was hard to find one for him. He wasn't exactly happy at home or even at school. Of course, he has Ginny and Hermione, but they don't make up for the endless torment he's given by Draco Malfoy, the school's most notorious bully. Slytherin, obviously.

And here he came. Draco Malfoy accompanied by his brutes for bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle. No one actually knew their first names except for the Slytherins because that was all anyone called them. It was their last names, but it somehow had become their first names in the last five years. Neville knew their first names; Vincent and Gregory; they used to be friends. He was actually friends with them all, Vince, Greg, and Draco. They stopped being friends once Draco found out he was a blood-traitor. It was like taking a dagger to the heart on both sides. Neville loved Draco more than anything-they were inseparable in fact- but unfortunately Draco didn't return the feeling. He still loves Draco. Not even in a friendly way either, Neville knew from the age of ten which direction he went in life and he always pictured himself and Draco sitting in rocking chairs in an old nursing home until their final breath was drawn. Draco was his, would continue to be his, and would be his until the end of time. None of the students excepting Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle knew of their previous friendships, and even if they did they had forgotten due to the wave of attacks on Neville from the green and silver trio across the span of half a decade.

Neville snapped out of his childhood memories and focused on what was happening.

"Longbottom! Did you even hear me?" Draco squints his eyes.

"Sorry, I was in a daze. Whatwuzat?" Neville replied.

"I said, 'What's up, blood-traitor'." Draco smirks, putting his hands in his pockets. He wasn't wearing his robes today. None of the three were.

Still caught up in his memories of friendship, Neville decides to respond nicely, "Oh, nothing much. I'm trying to perfect my Patronus charm-"

"Patronus charm? Ha! Neville 'Gardener' Longbottom is going to produce one of the most powerful charms. I'll believe it when I see it." Draco laughs like a hyena, walking back to the boarding school with Vince and Greg.

Neville just smiles as he stands, watching the platinum blonde hair he treasures so much walk away.

Charms, first period was very quiet the following Monday. They really just had free periods now that testing was over for their fifth year. Professor Flitwick just sort of talked with the class about what they wanted to do over the summer and how their year had been. Neville tries to stay out of the conversation, keeping much to himself, not wanting to draw attention. He preferred to be a loner. Harry was the same way. Hermione and Ron were chatting amongst themselves, but Harry appeared depressed, or blue at least. There is reason of course. Sirius' death has really taken a toll on him. Of course, there was no way to cure Harry of his grief, but maybe if Neville could cheer him up, he wouldn't be so torn up.

Then it hits him. It's the perfect reason to use the charm. Then again, it's only a ball of light, it didn't take a form yet. It probably doesn't spread happiness at all either. He remembers what Harry had told them about the first time he attempted to preform the charm and how it was no match for the dementor as a ball of light. Neville had to try though. He wanted to make his friend happy. He was tired of seeing Harry down.

Neville draws out his wand carefully. He doesn't want to arouse suspicion, but then again he's not like Draco, the Ravenclaws sitting in front of him can obviously understand that. He murmurs the words of the spell multiple times in preparation and thinks of a happy memory. Draco had been on his mind lately. Was there any moments where he was happy with him? Yes... There was that time... On the fifth attempt, Neville accidentally said the spell louder, and when he pointed his wand under his desk, a bright flash of light streaked out of the stick. It splits into separate beams of light and they twist and twirl until they form a great specter of shining, white light. Most of the class gasps at the creation. It's perfect, absolutely perfect. Neville inspects the animal, it appears to be a deer. It doesn't have any horns, so it must be a doe. That's funny, Harry's is a stag, Neville remembered.

A stag. And a doe.

Neville tosses away the thoughts momentarily to focus on what's going on in class with the Patronus. The spectral doe clops silently towards the Boy-Who-Lived and touches his nose with its muzzle. Neville got what he wanted. A smile from Harry. The doe disappears soon after.

"M-Mr. Longbottom! Was that a- a Patronus Charm? How did you preform such a feat?" Professor Flitwick exclaims. He's so astounded, he almost falls off his pile of books.

"Well, I had a- a good teacher." Neville stutters, looking at Harry with a smile.

"Oh. Well, thank you Neville. I'm glad you took such an interest in Charms you wanted to practice the harder ones yourself." Professor Flitwick scratches his nose in embarrassment.

Neville found himself sitting outside once more after school hours. He takes in the fresh air as he sits under a great oak tree atop a small, grass hill. There is a small dandy-lion next to him. That was a small, pretty, white flower that roared. The contents of its seeds were good for colds. He smiles, this really is his calling in life. Herbology. Perhaps he'll take over for Professor Sprout in the future, or maybe not. Maybe he'll become a simple gardener. Maybe he'll win Draco over in the future and live together in a small house with about three or four kids. Neville would take care of the plants and clean everything, and Draco could be an auror or even an author. Did he still like books? He used to. Did he want kids? Perhaps. It'd be nice to have little mini-hims running around the yard. Would they be too much trouble? Neville didn't know the first thing about children. Neville stopped himself. He had to stop daydreaming about Draco Malfoy. He was nothing but a bully. He had to start thinking about his involvement in the prophecy. What was that power he had that Voldemort didn't? Did the Dark Lord kill everything he touched? Strong possibility.

"Neville!"

Neville jumps a bit, startled about being awoken from his daydreams. He looks around wildly.

He finds Harry Potter standing above him, looking out towards the lake. He looks happier than he was yesterday, that's for sure.

"What did you need?" Neville asks.

"I just thought it was cool that I actually taught you to preform the Patronus Charm is all. Also, I wanted to test something. Come on."

Harry and Neville walk down to the lake. Well, Neville more-so ambles awkwardly than walks, and Harry acts as if it's a race he's trying to win, except that he can only go so fast. They stop at the edge of the water and Harry draws out his wand, nodding for Neville to do the same. He does. Neville looks around. There are a few people around, and that includes Malfoy and his posse. Neville knows what Harry wants him to do, and he definitely wants Draco to see it.

"On the count of three. Let's cast our charms." Harry says. "Three... two... one..."

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" the two yell out. A stag and doe burst out of their wands and stand on the water, being made of light. The deers circle each other and disappear.

"That's cool. Those were my mother and father's Patronus Charms. A stag and doe." Harry sighs. He usually gets worked up thinking about his parents.

"Um, Harry I know this sounds weird but... I really don't like you that way." Neville says, his cheeks turning pink.

Harry appears shocked. Not in the way like "I'm shocked you don't like me like that", but in the way of "What makes you say that?". Harry shakes his head. Of course. Neville always makes it awkward. Not on purpose though. "I know, Neville. I don't like you that way either, I just thought it was kinda cool. Especially because we're both part of the- y'know... prophecy." Harry laughs.

"Oh. Okay." Neville mumbles.

Harry walks off eventually, leaving Neville to his own devices. Draco Malfoy quickly took his place, standing beside Neville at the lake. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle stood a few feet behind Draco. Draco smirks at his ex-friend smugly. Neville just smiles sincerely.

"So how did you start getting good at magic? Was that a Patronus?" Draco asks. It seemed for once Draco was actually... proud of Neville? Unusual. Very unusual.

"Yeah, while you were with the Inquisitorial Squad patronizing first years for walking in front of you, I was with Dumbledore's Army learning how to perform the Patronus Charm." Neville says, walking around Draco boastfully.

"Interesting how it's a... doe." Draco's smile widens. That means trouble. "Potter's is a stag. I saw it. Is there something going on bet-"

"NO!" Neville suddenly burst out. God, that was dumb. Way to show you totally haven't had a crush on him for the past five years. Draco stepped back with a curious yet unsure smile. "I mean- I don't him that way. At all. Period." Neville speaks more slowly this time, careful of the impact his words can have on Draco.

"Right. Well, I'd say it's inevitable. When two people have same species Patronus Charms, they end up together. That's just how it works." Draco says as if he was a Patronus aficionado. It couldn't be true though, could it? Neville liked Draco, not Harry. "You like Potter, don't you?" Draco sneers, an evil grin making its way up to his ears.

"Not really. He's a friend... who I don't talk much to." Neville admits. Secretly, he does want to hang out with him more. He can't say this to Draco, it would add fuel to the fire.

"Whatever. You can say 'no' until the end of time like a stubborn mule, Longass, but I know you like him. You're perfect for each other too. One's a numbskull, and the other is a complete twat. Just curious, but did Potter teach you how to tie your shoes too?" Draco laughs much like a crow, making Vincent and Gregory guffaw with him. Neville clenches his fists. He wants to fight back with a jinx so badly, but violence is not the answer.

"We used to be friends, Draco," Neville says as he looks down at the ground. He puts his left hand on his other arm. He looks up at the blonde darkly. "but I suppose you've just gotten such a big head about yourself you've no room to remember."

"Pah. You and I? Never. We just... hung out." Draco shifts. He knows they were the best of friends. He doesn't want to admit it. "Anyway. I'm wanting to make a deal with you." he regains his nerve.

"What did you have in mind?" Neville doesn't care. He'll still do anything for an old friend. He should've been a Hufflepuff, even if he didn't want to be.

"I'll keep my mouth shut about Potter if-" Draco notices Neville roll his eyes. "Hey! I don't care if it isn't true, I have evidence on you! I'll keep my mouth clamped shut if you teach me how to do the Patronus Charm."

"Malfoy! You said all of us could learn it!" Vincent interrupts, stepping closer angrily.

"Okay! Fine! You have to teach Crabbe and Goyle, too. Alright?" Draco growls.

"You don't have to threaten me, Draco. I'll do it anyway." Neville says, a rising feeling of happiness welling up in his chest. Great! A chance to be with Draco again! Maybe now he can finally express his feelings to him. Draco nods.

"Good. Later, Longbottom." he leaves, finally.

Neville sighed. What the hell did he just get himself into now?


	3. 2-Gardens Are For Pansies

AN: Every even-numbered chapter is Harry's perspective and every odd-numbered chapter is Neville's. I like writing for both equally.

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"Is this a joke?" Ron Weasley sits next to Hermione Granger in the Gryffindor common room with a shocked expression. Harry Potter has just told his friends about Neville and his Patronus Charms. "B-but you like girls, don't you? What about Cho..." he's still trying to wrap his mind around this. Poor thing.

"Ron, how in the hell have you not noticed Harry swings both ways?" Hermione squints at her ginger friend from behind her book(Northern Lights). He shrugs. "Haven't you seen how he acts around Draco?"

"No... No. No! What?" Ron suddenly exclaims. He quickly scoots away from Hermione on the couch. "Harry doesn't like Draco... He can't."

"Subconsciously. Don't you Harry? Don't think about his personality for a second." Hermione orders. Harry blinks confusedly.

Harry shifts in his seat. He's extremely taken aback by the question. Did he like Draco? For his looks? Well, yeah. Draco was always handsome in Harry's eyes. The Slytherin girls seemed unable to resist, and it was always the case that Harry just couldn't get past his horrendous personality. So yes. Draco was quite dashing.

"Yes." Harry answers honestly. He closes his eyes and feels himself blush; it probably wasn't a good idea to say that in front of Ron who has a burning hatred for the Slytherin.

"There you go. It's not shocking at all." Hermione sits back and begins reading her book again. "You as a pure-blood should know that Patronus Charms that correspond with each other are a sign of loyalty and love. Your father's is a dog and your mother's is a dog."

"But Neville is... so not cool." Ron moans. "Is it just me? Am I delusional? Dude. He gardens. He can't do magic. He gardens."

"What's wrong with the gardening?" Hermione slams her book shut, startling Ron.

"Well, gardens are for pansies is all." Ron shrugged his shoulders.

"And where have you heard that?" Hermione sneers.

Ron gives her a goofy look. "That's what Fred and George alw-" he's suddenly hit in the head with the three hundred ninety-nine page book. Hermione scowls.

" _We do not under any circumstances listen to Fred and George Weasley_." her voice sounds guttural. Even Harry is frightened at this point. She's always stuck up for Neville. He was the first magical friend she had. It really pushed her buttons when anyone insulted him.

"What do I do though? I don't even like Neville _that way_. He's just not my type. I don't even want to hang out with him for chosen one training if I'm at all honest." Harry sighs, massaging his temples. He stops soon, realizing he might have ticked Hermione off further.

He did, but she breathes in and out in an attempt to stay calm. "Harry. Look. It's inevitable. I'm sorry. You're gonna have to get used to him though, you'll be spending at least a year with him trying to take down Voldemort." she looks around the room for somewhere to go that's far away from the two she doesn't want to see at the moment. She finds one and closes her book, rising from the couch. "So _deal with it_."

He didn't deal with it. For the next few days avoided the other chosen one. It was easy since he was hanging out with Draco Malfoy for reasons Harry knew not. The only drawback of ignoring Neville was the dirty looks from Hermione. He didn't need Hermione, he had Ron. Well, scratch that. Ron hasn't acted the same around him ever since he found out Harry _may_ have a thing for Neville. Which, it wasn't true in the slightest, but once Ronald Billius Weasley got something in his head it was hard to get it out.

Harry laid in bed, absolutely bored out of his mind. It was a Saturday, and there was nothing to do. He could play Quidditch... oh wait... their prized Beaters had left them. So that was a bust. He could always spy on people... but he didn't want to consult the Marauder's Map only to be greeted by Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, not-Padfoot, and Prongs. He could always do that homework Snape had assigned.

Haha. Hahahahahahahahaha... no.

Well, he could probably go talk to Neville. If he was going to be killing Voldemort with him, he might as well try and get along with him. Not that they didn't get along, they just knew nothing about each other except Harry likes Quidditch and Neville likes Herbology. It wasn't Harry's fault that that was all he knew about Neville. It was all he was good at and all he talked about. Getting to know him seemed like a good idea. It would get Hermione to talk to him again, too.

Neville has just walked out of the lake soaking wet. He wipes the water off his brow. He's greeted by Harry holding an ink quill and parchment. He has a crazy smile on his face. Or maybe it just appears that way because he has literally just watched Neville come out of the water for reasons he wasn't aware of and was trying his damnedest not to laugh. Neville takes care of that for him and begins chuckling with his hands on his hips. Harry joins him, sputtering at first and then crumpling on the ground, breaking out into laughter.

"Mr. Longbottom, can you tell us what it was like at the bottom of the lake?" Harry milks the moment by acting like a reporter, holding the feather part of his quill in he direction of Neville's face.

Neville looks to his right with a daring expression, milking the joke for what it's worth as well. "Yes, well, as you can see I have returned from my great Hogwarts Lake expedition. It was a very hard journey-"  
"Oh?"

"Yes. I found ah- girls. _Hot_ girls- _hot_ _mermaids_ \- at the bottom of the lake. I set them free because I'm an awesome hero. I got sixty-nine kisses from each one. There were three-hundred. And," he smiles. "I punched a guy in he face. He er- rules the underwater world. He was keeping the mermaids captive but I totally kicked his ass."  
"What's 'is name?"

Neville clasps his hands together, as if getting ready to tell a sad story. "Ariel." Harry begins laughing again as he rises from the ground. "It's very unfortunate." Neville snickers. "Very unfortunate name."

Then, as the laughter dies down, Harry remembers why he's there in the first place. First though, he wants to know why Neville just came out of the lake. "Seriously though, what were you doing there? Petting the squid?"

Neville snorts. "I was planting Watercreste for Professor Sprout. You see, Watercreste makes water glow gold on the anniversary plus a day it's planted. The professor wants it to glow on the final day of school. I think that's lovely." It had just come to Harry that they would be departing back going home tomorrow. "I have some leftover Gillyweed. Do want to see where I planted them? I did it in a heart shape so they'd glow brightest there. It looks rather nice."

"No thanks, I don't feel like getting wet today." Harry gave him an apologetic smile. Neville nodded.

"That's fine. Um, do you want to help me plant some Nymphaeas?"

"What do they do?" Harry asked.

"Dunno. I've only just now heard of them. Professor Sprout said- oh no! It was supposed to be a surprise. I'm sorry, I ruined it. They were for you. 'cause of Sirius." Neville winces as if someone had pinched him on the arm. "Sorry, Harry."

"It's okay. I'll plant them with you." Harry says. Neville's face lights up with happiness.

"Thank you!"

"So why did you have that quill and stuff?" Neville asks as he pours soil into a small bowl. It's the fifth and final bowl he's prepared.

Harry digs his fingers into the bowl and plops white seeds into them. They're the Nymphaea seeds. He's getting ready to brush soil over them when Neville puts his hands palms down in the bowl. He covers Harry's hands with the dirt he was going to cover the seeds with, and their hands touch at the same time. Harry's hands are completely covered in soil, and Neville's hand lays on top of that, but their fingertips touch, and it feels riveting. Harry looks up at Neville, his mouth slightly open with worry he was wrong for keeping his hands there and a tinge of pink on his cheeks from the embarrassment of getting into the situation. Neville looks between Harry and his hands multiple times before removing his hands. He can't believe he just did that. It was an accident.

"Oh, I just wanted to get to know you better. Y'know, write down what you like and stuff." Harry mumbles. He's trying to act as if that didn't just happen. Oh boy. That's gonna be hard.

"Cool. I like plants." Neville says jokily.

"I know." he looks Neville in the eye and says, "I like Quidditch."

"I know." Neville whispers. "Um... No one knows this, but I think we're close enough that I can admit this." Here it comes. He's about to tell Harry he's madly in love. Harry braces himself. "I used to be friends with Draco."

What a twist! "R-really? That's pretty shocking." Harry replies. He couldn't see them getting along at all.

"He found out I was a blood-traitor. Uhm. You probably don't know what that is, sorry. It's a pureblood who makes friendships with muggle-borns and muggles." Neville takes a deep breath. He's stopped what he's doing to tell this story.

"Once he found out I was friends with Hermione, he bolted, just left me. Hermione and I became friends before we boarded the train. Our friendship only blossomed further when she actually decided to help me find my toad, Trevor. Draco gave me a choice between being a blood-traitor and being his friend that day. Maybe if I had chosen Draco I wouldn't be so..." Neville trailed off and never finished the sentence. It was twilight by now. They had to leave soon. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to talk your ear off. We need to go now."

Harry nods and using Leviosa, levitates the five bowls of soil. Neville carried the Gillyweed.

* * *

AN: and so the relationship begins

Also

Question to my readers! Drarry, Dreville, or Haville?


	4. 3-Riveting Privet Drive

AN: i hate this chaptr nah jk

Also thank you guys so much for the two reviews! I still haven't finished chapter eleven, but I have twelve, so I need to go and work on those, until then, this should be updating daily because I have 4-10 done!

* * *

The train ride from Hogwarts was long and boring. He sat in Draco, Vincent, and Gregory's cabin, watching as they tried to perform the Patronus Charm.

"How can you do it? What memory did you choose?" Draco had asked. Neville told him, and after that, Draco was able to cast his Patronus. It was a dragon. Vince and Greg were still unable to cast the spell.

Neville waits for his grandmother, Augusta Longbottom, at Kings Cross. She is horribly late. Usually she's waiting at the station for him to get off the train, but today she has left him waiting for at least an hour. Harry had been taken home by his aunt and uncle already. They seemed like awful people.

Draco refused to leave until Neville's grandmother came for him. There was still a strand of rope left in the ties of their friendship after all. It had been two hours and Neville was starting to get worried. Lucius spotted Neville's grandmother in the crowd, and the Malfoy's left. Neville greeted his Grandmother with a sigh. She apologized over and over for her lateness. Apparently she was renovating their new house.

Wait... _NEW_ HOUSE?

Neville is pissed off. He's in the passenger seat of her car and he's completely pissed off. She's attempting to ask how his school year was and he's so pissed off. He won't even talk to her. She's never done this. She's never done anything major without telling him. He loved that house. That was where he grew up all his life, that was where his grandfather died, and that was where he Draco, Vincent, and Gregory all met. That was where he found out he was a wizard. Where he knew he wasn't a disgrace to his family, that he wasn't a squib.

"Neville, you can't stay in a house your whole life, you have to move on." she says, but he doesn't respond, he remains silent.

The rest of the ride is spent in silence. They arrive at their destination in half an hour. It was Little Whinging. They pull into the parkway of Number Five, Privet Drive. It's very quiet. Neville looked around skeptically as he got out of the car. He doesn't have he best eyesight-well, better than Harry Potter- but he can see his new neighbors all stare at him from behind curtains. So it was that type of neighborhood. He eyes the house cautiously. It's much smaller than his old one. It's a two-story house, but the other one was a twenty-story house. Excessive, yes, but it was thinner, too. His grandmother walks up to the door and unlocks it using the charm, Alohamora. He trudges unwillingly into the open door.

Neville hates his new room. It's cramped compared to his old room. The room already has all of his stuff in it. Thank god he didn't have much in it to begin with. He still has his twin-sized bed, his writing desk, his dressers, his owl clock, and wooden lamp with owls carved into it. He sets his pet toad, Trevor, on the top of the dresser, next to his lamp. He then walks over to the new window. His starry curtains survived the move. They still sparkle and shine like the night. He pulls them back and opens his window to look at the people next door. His new neighbors had their curtains open as well. He could see into what appeared to be a bedroom. It was only from the side though. Not that great a view. Maybe this guy-or maybe even a girl- is nice.

"I suppose I should tell you why we have moved." his grandmother speaks. They had just finished dinner and Neville is ready to go upstairs and head on to bed, but she has decided to interrupt this. "It was on Albus Dumbledore's command. I trust that man with my life. He wants you to be close to Mrs. Figg, another member of the Order of the Phoenix, so he can keep an eye on you. Sorry, dear. I had to move for Albus."

Neville isn't upset even though he clasps his hands on the table like he is. He's just thinking about things like, "why didn't she tell me this in the first place", "couldn't Mrs. Figg have moved", and "why does he need to watch me". He decides to reply with, "I understand." and heads on to bed.

Life isn't much easier for him in Privet Drive. In fact, it's worse. Much worse. He can't do magical things in a muggle neighborhood, he can't send letters by way of owl because the Ministry of Magic is snatching owls out of the air, he can't talk to the neighbors in case they're Death Eaters(his grandmother's rules. Ugh, that's no fun), and he can't leave, ever, unless it's an emergency exit to St. Mungo's. Neville is extremely sure this is some sort of cruel and unusual punishment. He doesn't know what he did wrong, but he's sure it wasn't _that_ bad.

It's only been a week and he's already horribly upset. Yes, today, or rather, tonight, it is Sunday, July 3rd, and Neville is incredibly bored.

He's been working on a garden in the backyard. It's going great. He can't work with magical plants, so he's learning about muggle ones. His only problem with them is how slow their trees grow, and how they don't glow, either. How was he supposed to know where the pests were in the Oaken Tree? Well, it wasn't an Oaken Tree, those were magical and strictly prohibited by his grandmother. It was called an Oak Tree. It was a very boring plant. He decided to sneak and use the super-growth soil Professor Sprout had given him on it, making it grow much faster. He's not too happy with the non-magical result though. It's absolutely boring. It bears no fruit, it doesn't glow, and it doesn't even show any sign of life. No face, no movement, it appears dead. It doesn't matter though. Next time, Neville decides, he'll plant that Venus Flytrap he's read so much about. Hopefully they were nothing like the Mercury Deertraps.

"I'll be gone for a week. I've left sufficient provisions for you until then. Remember, don't open the door for anybody except Mrs. Figg and Dumbledore. I've left a paper with the questions for them in case of Polyjuice Potion. Also, don't go outside. It's too dangerous." It had been a month. They have lived here successfully for a month, and his grandmother is talking about safety? Neville has snuck out so many times he knew the neighborhood inside and out. He could make a map of it if he wanted to. He hadn't talked to any of the neighbors, but he knew of them.

There is a boy he has heard of multiple times, but he's a recluse. Neville has seen hide nor hair of him, and yet he lives next door. Neville thinks he sees him sometimes though, peeking out of his curtains at him.

Furthermore, Neville is almost sixteen. She can't keep babying him. He probably knows more about Death Eaters than she does.

"Okay, grandma." he conforms to her rules. Until she leaves, that is.

It's been two days since she's been gone and already he has introduced himself to all of he neighbor's(the Dursley's being his least favorite though none of them are really that nice), jogged to the park each day to keep up his build, and rented seven books about muggle plants indigenous to Britain.

He's starting to get more curious about the boy next door. He knocked on the Dursley's door, and started up a conversation with the housewife, Petunia in an attempt to eke out information about him. He ended up getting more information than he needed to know about her son, Dudley. So basically, he knows nothing about the boy next door. That is, except for one big thing.

The boy has sent him a letter.

Yes, he sent an anonymous letter by way of owl just a few minutes ago. That meant he's a wizard. Now Neville saw why he was hidden from the public. Muggles are cruel. The boy didn't know Neville's name, either. So neither knew who the other was. That was fine. What was weird was what was written, and the anonymous name the boy chose.

It read: " _Hello, I'm your neighbor. I think you're cute. Is that okay? I don't know if you're bent or not. I've been watching you from the window. What's your name? I'm not allowed to see you. I can't leave the front yard, my relatives say I'm too weird to hang out anywhere. Ms. Figg has told me you're a wizard. Me too. I'm fifteen. You can call me Antlers."_

It was weird for a number of reasons. One, Neville found it a tad creepy for someone to be watching his every move in the privacy of his bedroom. Two, why would Ms. Figg say that? And three, why was his alias "Antlers"? What an odd choice.

So he sends the snowy owl back with a response saying, " _Hello Antlers. You can call me White-Tail. I'm also fifteen. I've never seen you before. Can I? Could you look out your window? Just your eyes if you're too shy. And yes, I'm bent."_

Soon after, the boy shrouds himself in his curtains, leaving only his eyes in view. He's wearing glasses that are almost perfect circles in shape. They cover most of his face from what Neville can tell. His eyes are big and dang it... they're beautiful. They're very feminine, almond shaped with innocent, shining, forest green eyes. Then, after a minute, he retreats shyly. Neville's mouth fell open. If this guy has amazing eyes, he definitely wanted to see more of him.

Antlers sent another letter later at night: " _Sorry, I_ _had to revise this over and over again before I got this letter right. So what did you think? Do you like my eyes? I would show you the rest of me, but I'm afraid you won't like me, sorry. I've been told I'm too_ (he never finished this sentence, Neville notices) I _wish I could actually meet you. What are your interests? I see you like to workout. I like to hang out with my friends and getting into trouble. I'm surprised half the Hogwarts staff doesn't hate me. You are a wizard right? If not, that's a boarding school in Scotland. There's four houses, and I'm in Gryffindor. That's for those who are brave. The others are Hufflepuff for friendlier folk, Ravenclaw for intelligent minds, and Slytherin for the evil people, quite frankly. Which house would you choose?"_

Neville's reply: _"Slytherin. Just kidding! I go to Hogwarts too, and I'm a Gryffindor. I think I should've been a Hufflepuff though. I don't feel that brave. Hey, I've obviously been seeing your owl a lot, and I was wondering what is his name? I wish I had an owl. All I have is a toad. His name is Trevor. He was a gift from my Uncle Algie for getting into Hogwarts. I like my toad, but he gets lost often and it's very frustrating. Also, I like to garden and read. I've been reading this book called Jurassic Park. It's really good."_

Antlers' reply: _"Cool! We should be in the same year, right? Maybe we can meet up. My owls name is Hedwig and it's a she. What year are you? I'm a fifth year."_  
White-Tail's reply: _"That'd be nice. And sorry. I'm a sixth year. (_ Neville was talking about he year he would be in when he came back to Hogwarts, and assumed Antlers was saying the same) _Sorry if this is weird or hurtful, but what is your blood-type? I'm not a blood supremacist, just curious. I'm a pureblood and I was mainly wonder if how you got stuck with muggles."_

Antler's reply: _"It's okay. I'm a half-blood. My parents are dead. My mother was a muggle-born, and my father was a pureblood with absolutely no family. That's why I'm with her stupid family. Saying it sucks would be like saying cutting your arm off creates a minor slash. You live with your grandmother, right?"_

Neville was going to reply but there was a weird knock. A weird knock as in a frantic knock. It had two seconds in-between about five knocks. Neville puts his quill down to answer the door as perhaps it's Antlers.

He approaches the door apprehensively, holding his arm out as his hand grabs the door just in case the surprise visitor jumps out at him. It didn't, it just stood there, sobbing violently. It's disheveled, with messy platinum blonde hair. The fact that it's standing in the rain doesn't make it look any better. It's just wearing a black cloak, nothing is covering it's head. It's grey eyes are full of forgiveness, pleading, and sorrow.

"Draco?"

* * *

AN: SO MANY QUESTIONS! Why is Draco here? What is the memory he and Neville share? Who is Antlers? _Why is Neville so dumb?_


	5. 4-Encounters of a Werewolf Kind

AN: all the questions will be revealed! So says i, the great and powerful, GLASSES! Also to the guest with the questions: I didn't write the book, J.K. Rowling did, and I have no idea why she made the choices she made. It's all there in the books, I promise. If I agreed with the writing decisions of Rowling, then this story would not exist. (bc yes, I think Harry and Neville should've both been chosen ones, even if they didn't get together or anything.)

* * *

Draco looks down at the table with dread and fright deep in his eyes. "It's a full moon tonight." he breathes heavily. He looks up at Neville for a response. Neville just roams around the room, gathering his ingredients for a potion. He walks off to get a cauldron. He brings it into the kitchen, dropping it loudly and nearly breaking it. "I'm desperate. I'm really desperate. God, you know you're desperate when you come to Neville Longbottom for a potion, right?" Draco mutters, mumbling "oh God" several times in a row.

"Calm down, Draco." Neville sighs heavily. He pours a spot of honey in a pot of boiling water. He chops the petals of some Monkshood off carefully. Surprising only to Draco, he minces the stem as well. He lays them out on a chopping board. "Alright. I've gotten it started."

"That's not how you do it." Draco spits ungratefully.

"Oh? Please, do tell that to Damocles. I'll go gather the Noxititan. Don't look outside." Neville warns. He opens the sliding door and leaves to his garden.

Draco sits, twiddling his fingers nervously. He gets up from his seat and paces. What is taking Neville so long? It's been five seconds. He looks at the potion. He's supposed to make the part of the potion that requires stirring since Neville can never get that right. Draco had to admit, Neville knew a lot about plants. It was too bad that almost every potion Professor Snape had assigned had no flora for ingredients.

"I'm back!" Neville shouts gleefully. He comes in holding the plant as Draco is stirring the potion with a potion cooking book open. Neville puts the dark purple plant called Noxititan down on the table. Even though Draco is paler than usual, he looks better than ever. And by better, Neville means handsomer. Draco looks up at him with a confused look at Neville's unintended stare. He just looks back down at the cauldron, paying attention to his stirring. Neville stands behind Draco and becomes entranced in deep thought. He could make a move right now. It was the perfect time. But of course there was a big chance Draco might think Neville was weird for it. He decides to reach out and grab he spoon and have a moment-

"Neville," Draco starts. Neville stops where he is. "did you leave the door open?"

Neville thinks for a moment. Yes, he had forgotten but why... "Does that matter?" he asks. Then he realizes that yes. It does.

Draco drops the spoon suddenly, and his arms fall to his sides. He begins to mutter about the moon, and Neville walks backwards apprehensively. Draco's arms begin to turn more of a yellow hue, like old parchment. His ears turn wolf-like, and his face elongates into a snout. Neville, feeling a sudden burst of bravery, pushes the weak Draco outside, careful not to bump into anything. The Gryffindor sets the Slytherin on his side and kneels beside him during the transformation process. He needs to move soon, in fact, Draco is moaning for him to, but Neville stays until it's complete. When his friends does turn into a tawny wolf, Neville runs for his life, screaming. He shut the sliding door with a slam as quickly as possible. The wolf that was previously Draco scratched and gnawed at the glass, bellowing out and howling all the while.

There's a knock at the door. Neville watches the wolf as he backs away to answer the door. At first Neville didn't believe Draco was a werewolf, that he was bitten by Fenrir Greyback as punishment for his father's failings. He wanted to believe him so badly, but it all felt like a trap. Draco had admitted to being a Death Eater now. He wouldn't tell him what his job was, but he definitely said he was in leagues with You-Know-Who. Now, Neville had no choice but to believe him.

He opens the door, still watching the werewolf. A boy steps in and peeks behind the door at Neville. They end up staring into each other's eyes for a minute before either speak, and they both speak at the same time.

"Harry?"

"Neville?"

"What're you doing here?" Neville asks.

"I heard screams coming from White... Tail's... House... well. I figured. I really hoped it was Draco." Harry closes the door.

"Antlers? Oh. That makes sense I was hoping you were... not you." Neville sighs. He was actually starting to stray from Draco to Antlers. Now that he knew Antlers was Harry, he wasn't sure he could see him that way. "Wait, Draco?" Neville makes the off-hand remark. Thankfully Harry doesn't hear it.

"So what's happen-" Harry stares into the kitchen with fear deep in his eyes. The werewolf, Draco, has broken through the glass of the sliding door, there's blood on his forehead, and he's absolutely livid. "-ing."

Harry nods. "I see." he states. Neville had just explained what happened to make a werewolf chase after them. Honestly, Harry just couldn't see Draco Malfoy, hater of werewolves, being a werewolf himself. Of course it was recent, as in just a month previous, but Harry still couldn't see it happening.

Right now, he's at Lively Park, swinging on a swing. Ironically, it's very dead. No one is there besides himself and Neville. The park is also mostly abandoned. A lot of the playthings are broken down or rusted. Kids rarely come to the park to play. It's also night time, and the dark clouds which have moonlit tops create a sense of doom, gloom, and death.

"What are we gonna do? We can't just camp out here all night." Harry moans. "Not with that- wolf- out there. He might hurt someone." he looks into Neville's eyes with a sense of begging.

"Well, we could," Neville sighs. "but we can also have a swinging contest."

"'Swinging contest'?" Harry snickers. He looks around, stupefied. "The heck is that?"

"See who can swing highest,"

Harry scoffs and smirks. "Oh there is no chance-none whatsoever- that you can outswing me. Let's go."

Neville mounts his swing with a goofy smile. Harry ducks his head down and laughs. "What?" Neville asks, genuinely confused at what he did to make Harry react that way.

"You do everything with that smile." Harry gleams. Was he starting to find Neville endearing?

But it's not important, it's actually very insignificant, so they gloss back over it and forget about it. They move on to what they were there for. The swinging contest. They kick their legs, in and out, in and out, and they begin picking up speed. Their seats start swinging from one diagonal pole to the other and they're tied. They don't believe there's a way to swing higher than that, but Neville has figured it out. He puts his whole weight into the swing and he ends up almost going around in a whole loop. Harry is extremely amazed and Neville is having fun for once.

Suddenly, a wolf-like figure can be seen in the distance. "NEVILLE!"

Neville flies out of his seat in a panic and lands on the grass. He rises up slowly with a groan. Everything hurts at least a little bit. What hurts most is his leg. He has a huge rip in his jeans, he must have cut himself on a rock. His leg has a huge cut, it's bleeding heavily. He pants and combs a hand through his messy black hair. Then, he finds what made Harry scream in the first place. Draco was growling right behind him.

Harry rushes to the elder boy and helps him up, careful not to hurt him. He's not sure how he's going to carry a taller, heavier boy, but he hopes for the best. Draco comes closer, snapping his jaws. Harry finds himself unable to support Neville, and he's starting to freak out. He does one of the most random things and casts a Patronus Charm, hoping to distract the beast.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry screams, pointing his wand he keeps around in case of Dementors, shooting out a spectral, white stag. He hobbles off with the harmed Neville as the werewolf becomes distracted with the ghostly deer.

They got back to Neville's rather slow. Thank goodness they had gotten a lead on that werewolf multiple times by way of Patronus Charm. When they arrived, a Ministry of Magic letter was sitting on the countertop in the kitchen. Harry took Neville up to his bed and went to the kitchen to read it. He assumed he had gotten one too since they were both underage wizards casting spells.

It reads: " _Dear Mr. Longbottom, we regret to inform you that you have been using magic underage outside of school. It is in your best interest to never do this again. This has been your first warning. Another will result in a second warning. The third will result in a visit to court where you would argue your case for using it. Sincerely, The Ministry of Magic_."

Harry puts down the letter and walks up to Neville's room. He ignores Neville for the moment and walks to the window. Yep, there's his aunt and uncle fussing over where he is, and screaming about these nasty letters. He's gotten one before. Oh, and there's Dumbledore's owl coming to explain everything. WAIT, WHAT? What's Dumbledore's owl doing here? To explain what? How would Dumbledore know about this?

Harry brings his hands down. He won't stress himself out. No matter what, he's not going to stress himself out. He looks at Neville worriedly. He's panting heavily. He looks horrible. He's already lost a lot of blood and is beginning to look pale. Harry runs to get a cold washcloth to wrap around his leg. Neville murmurs a small thank-you. Harry stays by his bed for the next hour. After an hour, there's a howl. They just can't catch a break.

Harry runs to the top of the stairs. Below him is an angry werewolf. Harry looks out at the night through the large windows. Then, it hits him. He just has to stall until the sun comes up. It's already 6:00AM and the sun will come up in half an hour. So Harry runs back to Neville, takes his wand, and casts the stupefying charm on the wolf. Neville would just get a second notice. He didn't want to get violent but it had gotten to that point. Afterwards, Harry tends to Neville's wounds, stupidly ignoring the werewolf just around the bend. The wolf scratches and claws at the door. Only twenty-five minutes. It breaks through. Fifteen minutes. Neville drags himself under the bed and Harry rushes to his desk, pulling the owl lamp out of its socket. Ten minutes. He swings at the wolf three times, but it approaches slowly still, and he is backed up against the wall. Five minutes. He holds the lamp up and the wolf gnaws at it as it is being pushed back. It reaches out for him but is unable to scratch or claw him. Neville crawls out from under the bed and points his wand at the werewolf.

"ALOHAMORA!" Neville screams.

It does nothing. That is a spell to unlock doors. Clearly, Neville is not a master at magic.

He is however, good at stalling.

A bright light shines through the window and transforms Draco back to his real form. He spits out the lamp pole and splutters as he kneels down and wipes his mouth. Harry breathes a sigh of relief. Neville faints from exhaustion.

"What the hell." Is Draco's first sentence back as a human.

* * *

AN: ok so I believe in the Draco is a werewolf theory

also

dat goofy smile tho

and if you're wondering, the reason Neville has the ingredients for the potion even though he's banned from magical plants is because his grandmother keeps around the plants that make a Wolfsbane and the other werewolf potion(name is slipping my mind) potion just in case something were to happen.


	6. 5-Uncovering Truths Among Dares

AN: this is it

this is the moment where we truly see the first appearance of everybody's favorite otp

...

...

...

drapple

nah jk im talking about dramione

or am i

* * *

Neville, Draco, and Harry all stand in the living room in front of an early and absolutely peeved grandmother. It's Neville's nana, Augusta, and she's just returned from her business trip. Early. She was supposed to be back in five days, but she had encountered a snag when she was driving her car and accidentally drove in the wrong lane. Wizards didn't usually drive after all. So, she went on a huge adventure through the England law system because she had wrecked, and all in two days. It was a long story which they didn't have time to hear. All the three knew was that she was extremely miffed. They of course had told her everything. The letters Harry sent, the secret excursions by Neville, and Draco's furry little problem.

"Why is there broken glass in the kitchen?" she asks first.

"That was Draco." Neville says, watching as the aforementioned blonde picks glass out of his forehead and twigs and leaves out of his hair.

"And the door? Why has it burst off its hinges?" she asks.

"Also Draco." Neville replies, scratching his newly fixed leg.

"Why is your lamp out of its socket?"

"Oh that was Harry." Neville smiles and looks to the left since the blame isn't entirely on Draco for the mess.

"You know who's going to clean it up, right? With magic?" she asked.

"'With magic'?" Harry asks, clearly confused. Draco just stared at Neville's grandmother.

"The two of you don't have to do anything," his grandmother states as if it should have been obvious. "I wouldn't expect you to understand, being talented wizards," she hands her wand to a very disgruntled Neville. "but Neville still needs to improve his skills."

"I'm going to help." Harry says bravely, looking into the woman's eyes with dead seriousness. "He shouldn't have to do this alone."

"I should be going, actually." Draco mutters. "Mother will be upset if I am not present at the breakfast table. In fact, she might be filling her head with worry right now. She hadn't known I had come here, after all."

"Before you leave; your robes are in tatters, so I'm going to get you some clothes." Neville's grandmother says.

She rushes up the steps and in a few minutes comes down with a fresh t-shirt, and some jeans. She plops them down in Draco's arms. He is clearly befuddled at why she would be so nice to a Death Eater. He accepts the gift anyway and departs for the bathroom to change. He must find it first though, so he wanders around aimlessly until Neville ends up guiding him to the downstairs loo. He waits outside the door, listening for his name to be called for help if the situation should arise. It doesn't and Draco exits the bathroom donning a gothic, primarily white t-shirt with the Deathly Hallows, some objects from an old fairytale, on it. He's also wearing ripped jeans. The clothes are somewhat baggy on him, but he doesn't seem to mind. Neville can't help but stare downwards, as his pants do look sort of weird, being as baggy as they are.

"Is that a wand in your pants or are you just happy to see me?" Draco asks with his hands on his hips, smirking down at his blonde friend.

"I-" Neville stammers before pulling his grandmother's wand out of his pants. "Y-yeah, I was going to go-"

"Clean up? Alright then. Well, I think I'll stay here and hang out or whatever." Draco stares off into the distance. "I dunno. I just don't really want to go home." he says as he leaves the hallway. Neville can hear him asking if he can stay over for dinner as he has changed his mind. She yells back a yes. The same goes for Harry, though he leaves to ask permission. Neville knows it's likely not to end well though, Harry's aunt and uncle don't seem too nice.

So Neville toils throughout the day, trying to fix Draco's mess. Harry helps some, though Neville does chastise him for trying to help since he didn't have a hand in the cause, and also he's using muggle equipment. Which sucks.

They finally get done an hour before dinner time. They retreat upstairs to Neville's bedroom where Draco awaits them, just finishing a game of wizard's chess with himself. Harry decides to play against Draco while Neville watches. Draco is successful in his chess strategy at first, but seeing Harry struggle so much that he literally only has a king and a pawn where Draco still has all his pieces, he allows him to win. Or at least, that's what he whispered to Neville at the end.

After Draco and Harry's chess session is over, Neville and Harry try and suck at playing chess against each other while Draco coaches the two of them angrily while noisily eating a green apple.

Draco ended up having a fit when Harry, who went home to get properly dressed, came back with his muggle cousin, Dudley, because he wouldn't let him borrow one of his dress shirts without taking him to the dinner too. Harry's shirt is a little big on him though, like all his clothes. Neville assumes this must mean all his clothes are hand-me-downs. Draco just turns up his nose when Harry walks past him to the dining room.

Neville thinks Harry might regret the decision because a muggle being there meant not getting to talk about magic or the prophecy. Both of which were definitely not for muggle ears. However, Harry seemed glad that he didn't have to speak to Dudley because he and Draco actually hit it off when talking about how awful living with Harry Potter is.

"So Harry, Neville tells me you've mastered the Patronus Charm," Neville's grandmother begins. "Is this true?"

This catches Harry off guard since he's sitting right next to a muggle, but he supposes muggles aren't supposed to know what any of this means, so it won't be as illegal as actually seeing it.

"Yeah I have. Mine's a stag." Harry says.

"I've seen it. It's pretty cool." Dudley shockingly says. Harry smiles at this compliment from his cousin who he had thought hated him. "He saved my life with it. I would've been dead if it weren't for him."

"Aww, Dudley," Harry grins. "That's so sw-"

"I was talking about the ghost deer. Ghost Deer saved my life." Dudley quickly says to save face. Harry lightly punches him in the shoulder anyway as a sign of camaraderie.

"Neville, have you been practicing yours?" his grandmother asks.

"Yes, mine is a doe! It's fully corporeal and everything!" Neville says, excited that his grandmother is interested in his feats for once.

"Wait, wait, wait." Dudley snickers and laughs. "Hold the phone! You mean he has a stag, and you have a doe? Are you guys... Y'know? 'Cause if not, that's pretty awkward."

"Well, yeah. It is awkward because we're not anything." Harry informs him as he takes a bite of potatoes.

"I think you guys would be just adorable. The true heroes of the battle against Lord Voldemort! Oh isn't that just precious?" Neville's grandmother chimes in. Draco and Neville cringe at the name of Voldemort.

"I have my eye on someone else, actually." Neville mumbles, not meaning to look at Draco, but does anyway.

"I'm not that way." Harry fidgets with his fork and looks away, blushing madly.

And the rest of the dinner was eaten in silence except for Draco and Dudley's conversations.

After the fact, Dudley went home, but Harry stayed over. He didn't even need permission, his aunt and uncle didn't care where he was as long as he wasn't pestering them. Draco also stayed over because simply put, he didn't want to go home to his mother and moreso, his aunt Bellatrix. Neville and his grandmother didn't mind though. So the three just had a huge sleepover.

The first thing they did was Veritaserum or Audenserum. Which was basically the wizard version of Truth or Dare except you really knew the truth and you were forced to do the dare. The potions sold for the game aren't very strong, so they only last for one question or dare. There was a third element though. If you refuse, you have to take a jelly bean. It's no ordinary jelly bean though, it's a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean. Though, you won't know the question or dare until you take one of the potions. The bag is bewitched to have only the bad ones. First up is Draco because he has the shortest wand when they all hold theirs up. Then it will be Harry, and lastly Neville.

"Truth or dare, Draco?" Harry asks.

"Veritaserum or Audenserum, Potter." Draco corrects him. "Get it right or don't play."

"Okay, Veritaserum or Audenserum?" Harry asks.

Draco ponders for a bit. He's cute when he's in deep thought, Neville thinks. "Veritaserum. I don't feel like doing anything stupid tonight."

"Okay, who are you in love with?" Harry asks after Draco takes a shot of Veritaserum. The platinum blonde almost spits it out when he hears the question.

"I am in love with Hermione Granger." he covers his mouth as soon as the truth comes out and curls into a ball. "Please don't tell my mom. Or Hermione. Or Ron." he mumbles. "I know how you are, Potter, you have to tell your friends everything."

"God. That explains a lot." Harry nods, now understanding his hatred for he and Ron and his apathy towards Hermione whenever they all fight. "I swear I'll keep my promise. My lips are tight."

Neville doesn't take it the same way, however. His whole world has crumpled around him in only seven words. He swallows hard and tries to put on a smile. This was the man he was going to marry, or at least, he thought he was. Draco apparently had other plans. What was their childhood all about then? Was he just not that way? Was it him? Was it his fault? Neville wasn't sure how to feel, but he and Draco were still friends in his eyes, and he supported whatever decision he made.

"But what if she asked me?" Harry suggests. Draco stares him down.

"Alright Harry, your turn. Veritaserum or Audenserum?" Neville asks, trying to sound as calm as possible.

"I pick dare." Harry says, eying Draco as he takes a shot of Audenserum, just waiting for the annoyed reaction from him.

"It's not dare, it's Audenserum." Draco grumbles.

"I dare you to howl like a wolf." Neville grins evilly.

"That's really mild. Where's the risk or hilarity in- AWOOOOOOOO!" Draco howls uncontrollably from his inner wolf as soon as Harry starts. They can also hear other wolves howling in the distance. Neville just laughs on the floor. Finally Harry stops. "That's not funny, Potter." Draco mutters.

"That was the best thing I've ever seen in my life." Harry cries from laughing after he's done howling.

"Whatever, Potter! Neville! Truth or- damnit I mean Veritaserum or Audenserum?" Draco huffs.

Neville takes a shot of Audenserum. "Audenserum." he replies.

"Of course the Gryffindors would. Okay, I dare you to throw a pillow at Potter!" Draco screeches, pointing at Harry angrily.

"Aww, is it that time of the month, Malfoy?" Harry asks condescendingly. Neville isn't quite sure what he's referring to.

"Piss off, Potter!" Draco says.

"What's the matter? Don't have a good ret-" all of a sudden, Neville hits him in the head with a pillow. "The hell?" Harry asks, dumbfounded. Draco just cracks up on the floor laughing.

"Now that's funny!" Draco snickers.

"I'm not playing anymore." Harry says, sounding like a whiny child.

"Yeah, me neither." Draco agrees for once.

"Well I guess I can't play by myself so..." Neville says.

They sit in silence until Harry says something.

"When did you find out you like Hermione?" Harry asks.

"None of your business, Potter!" Draco yells at Harry while blushing.

Neville frowns jealously. He shakes his head. He needs to be supportive. Otherwise, he's not a good friend. Draco and Hermione could be a good pair, and besides, everyone's always talking about he and Harry being destined for each other, so maybe Draco's not even the right guy for him.

"I'm sure Hermione likes you back. You should've seen the way she was fawning over you when your arm was broken." Neville assures him.

Draco chuckles at this and scratches his nose. "R-really? I thought she- well..." Draco sits and smiles at the wall, lost in likely adorable thoughts of Hermione. "What are you staring at?" he points at Harry accusatorially. Harry just shrugs it off. "Whatever, be right back." Draco says and gets up to leave.

Where? Neville doesn't really care after everything that's happened. Truth or dare under any name is a dangerous game. Neville takes a deep breath. He thinks he's fine with this new chapter after all.

"You liked Draco, didn't you?" Harry whispers to Neville.

"Yeah." Neville admits, crossing his arms.

"Well he's totally straight, sorry to say. I kissed him in our fourth year after I won the golden egg. I was feeling very dashing after my spectacular feat. He wasn't very into it. It was an accident."

"Well, he wasn't very into you, Harry. I've kissed him before too. When we were younger, I mean. He's bi at least." Neville scoffs.

"I can see that." Harry nods after thinking for a moment.

When it comes time to sleep, Draco and Harry sleep in Neville's bed while Neville takes the couch. It'd be rude to deny his guests the most comfort possible. He is rudely awoken from his own comfort however, when Draco and Harry get into a fight upstairs. He rushes up to see what's wrong and finds that they're fighting over the cover. Neville sighs and goes back downstairs. Truth be told, after tonight, Neville doesn't really want to be with either of them.

The next day, the three all pack up to go to the Weasley's house, the Burrow. Harry has to go with Dumbledore first though, in order to recruit a new Hogwarts teacher. Draco isn't having that though, and with his Slytherin charm, persuades his headmaster to take him with him. Neville is fine with staying though, and departs for the Burrow with his grandmother by way of the Floo Network.

The house itself is a little weird. It's like the Leaning Tower of Pisa if it weren't a wizarding conference room and was a house. It felt like home the first step into it though. It was lively with all of the Weasley's there except for Charlie, Percy, and the twins who were made up for with the addition of Fleur Delacour, Hermione Granger, and the soon to be there Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. Also, the scent of freshly made biscuits and homemade gravy filled the air. Furthermore, Molly Weasley was right here to invite Neville in. It was most definitely home.

Neville enjoyed talking to Hermione and Ginny about his escapades just nights ago. They were in shock at what they were hearing, but it was fairly believable to them at the same time. The day wasn't really started until Draco and Harry arrived. Ron wasn't very happy with Draco being there, but Dumbledore preferred him staying at the Burrow, rather than having him go home and end up being conditioned to be a Death Eater. He didn't like making Narcissa worry though, so he sent a letter explaining everything.

"I guess I can see why you wouldn't want to go home to Death Eater parents, but your family will be worried." Ginny comments at the dinner table a half an hour in.

"You really don't understand us Malfoy's, do you?" Draco sneers. "You thought Severus Snape was the best spy for the Order? Ha! You couldn't be more wrong. We're so good, no-one knows we're even spies except Dumbledore. Why do you think we switched our allegiance so quickly? It's just a shame father had to put in jail for it." Draco mutters the ending sentence, biting a chunk of a biscuit as he does so.

"That's interesting. It gives me a whole new perspective on you." Harry says, blowing on his hot soup.

"Really?" Draco asks.

"No, you're still a huge prat." Harry says cheekily.

"Come on now Harold. Please don't insult our guest." Molly says, acting as if she's Harry's mother.

"So Draco, your family has never actually been on the side of You-Know-Who?" Arthur asked.

"Nope. Never. Well, mum's side has. Aunt Bella is his strongest supporter seeing as how the two are-" he bit his lip.

Harry looked at the blonde beside him with a goofy grin. "Oh? Please tell, Draco. What are they doing?"

"I shouldn't have said anything! That was between mum and Aunt Bella. I just happened to overhear it." he took a deep breath and the said quickly, "Butlet'sjustsayAuntBellaandtheDarkLordhaveasonwhoissaninnkeeperandhisnameisTom."

"Shut the front door." Bill says, dumbfounded by the statement from Draco. "That guy is- wow."

"Yeah well, it'd be nice if you didn't go around repeating that. It's kinda on the down low if you know what I mean." Draco says nervously.

"Well I think I'm ready to hit the hay." Ron says, stretching.

"Me too, mate." Harry yawns. The two walk out of the kitchen after putting their empty dishes in the sink.

"So Neville is it?" Fleur starts. Neville nods so she continues, "I hear from Ron zat you 'ave a Patronus zat is a doe, while 'Arry 'as a stag? It is true, non?"

"Yeah. It- it is." Neville stammers. He's beginning to get tired of hearing this. The more he hears it, the more he dislikes the idea of actually being with Harry.

"I zought it was very cute. You would make a good couple, don't you zink?"

"Yes, but... I don't think we'll be together anytime soon." Neville says, much to her dismay.

"Personally, I think you should date who you want. I don't think Patronus Charms have anything to do with it. I've done my research, and they form based on your current emotions, not who you're destined for." Hermione says as-a-matter-of-factly. Neville gets the feeling she was only saying that to disagree with Fleur, but he still appreciates her agreeing with him.

After that, everyone went to bed. Neville laid in his, across from Harry's pondering whether or not he actually liked him. He didn't get to wonder for long as he quickly fell asleep, forgetting about the question in the morning.

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AN: For clarification, Hermione still stands behind what she said in the second chapter, she just wants to disagree with Fleur. Also Delphi? Who's that? What's a Cursed Child? idk


	7. 6-What Happens in Diagon Alley, Stays

AN: Thank you guys so much for 1000 views! I hope you all are enjoying the story so far!

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Sunlight shines through the window of the Burrow. Harry squints as the rays of light find their way into his line of sight. He groans as he turns over onto his right side to escape the blinding sun. His eyes are barely open, but he can see Neville across from him clearly. He appears peaceful when he's sleeping, and just as cute as Harry hates to admit.

Personally, he'd like nothing to do with the guy. Not because Neville has a bad personality, but if they were in a duel with Voldemort- which he knows will be inevitable- he wouldn't want to be in one with someone who isn't that good at magic. Neville had improved tremendously from Dumbledore's Army, but if Harry was being completely honest, he'd still choose Ron with his broken wand over Neville. Harry just doesn't want to get too close to Neville. If and when they get into a battle with the Death Eaters plus Voldemort, he'll be the first casualty, and Harry just doesn't know if he'll be able to take a loss that bad.

Luckily, Ron is able to snap Harry out of these thoughts by waking the two boys for breakfast. Harry just stretches and gets out of bed since he's already awake, but Neville is harder to rouse as he's been in a deep sleep and still is. It's been five minutes since Ron yelled for the two to wake up so he is forced to try and shake Neville awake, but that doesn't work so Ron pushes him out of bed. Neville isn't affected much, he's just confused as to why he's in the floor.

Thus, the three all head down to the kitchen where the rest of the family and guests have gathered. The smell of pancakes and syrup fills the air. Harry and Neville sit together since there are only two seats left. Draco, quite fortunately for him, is sitting next to his love interest, Hermione, and he is enjoying every second of it. Harry doesn't believe he's seen the blonde happier. He questions whether the two will actually get together. He hopes Hermione knows he's way out of her league.

"Did you all sleep well?" Molly asks her guests. Draco nods curtly, Neville says a happy "yes", and Harry just smiles. He didn't really have a good night sleep because he had kept being woken up by some weird dreams about snogging the boy sleeping next to him and said boy's snoring.

"Thank you for having us." Draco says gratefully. He's certainly turning on the schmooze, but Harry isn't sure what for yet, but what Harry can confirm is that Draco is smirking in his direction. He's not sure what that means either, though. Whatever it is, it must be bad.

In the middle of breakfast, Errol, the family owl, crashes into Harry's porridge, causing Draco to howl in laughter. Hermione and Ginny giggle in response. Neville and Ron move their plates of pancakes and bacon away from Harry's polluted porridge. Thankfully, the owl doesn't get the mail dirty as its holding it in its beak. Harry yanks away the mail, as if it was landing in his bowl purposefully. He hands the letters to their respective recipients. It's about Hogwarts. More specifically, the syllabus and O.W.L. scores.

Harry reads his. They're okay. One O, five E's, and one A.

"Oh. I already know my scores. I requested a peek a few months back." Neville chuckles as he reads the letter.

"All 'exceeds expectations'!" Ron shouts happily, clutching his paper happily.

"Oh no..." Hermione says, looking down at her paper. She hides it by pressing it close to her chest.

"What's wrong?" Harry asks.

"I can't say." Hermione says, looking as if she's near tears. She holds her paper out again in front of her. Draco slyly gets a peek.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be okay. It's not as bad as mine." Draco says sympathetically. He shows her his.

"Not to be rude, but you are right." Hermione agrees.

"I don't understand." Neville furrows his brow.

"Well see, I have an 'outstanding' in every class except Potions and Herbology! Those are just 'exceeds expectations'." Draco explains. "It wouldn't be so bad if Professor Snape was taking E students, but he's not. Only O's. Also Hermione has an O in both of these so it's even more upsetting, honestly."

"Oh, well I've gotten an E in his class." Harry sighs. Then he remembers he doesn't like Snape and he smiles. Then he remembers he has to have Potion N.E.W.T.'s to be an Auror and he frowns. "Shoot." he says quietly.

"The only E I have is in Defense Against the Dark Arts! Isn't that horrible? The only one to figure out Lupin was a werewolf gets one of the worst scores?" Hermione complains.

"Oh! Finally something I've beaten you in! I got an O there!" Harry laughs, elbowing Neville to laugh with him. He doesn't though, he just smiles at Harry awkwardly since he doesn't find it as funny. Hermione and Draco sneer at Harry angrily.

"Well it's a good thing the syllabus has been released because I think it's a good time for a Diagon Alley trip." Arthur says in the middle of the O.W.L. commotion.

Once at Diagon Alley, the first stop was Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. It was a huge, colorful store owned by the Weasley twins, Fred and George. It was a very happy and bustling place with many kids running around compared to the rest of the marketplace which seemed dark and depressing after Voldemort's return. Fred and George certainly seemed glad to be running the shop. Everything they spouted had an excited tone. The products were very exciting too. There was candy that made you sick to get out of having to do assignments, love potions, fuzzy creatures called "Pygmy Puffs", and even extendable ears to allow you to spy on others. It was quite the line up. The group spent most of their time there.

"We've heard it's a very special day today!" George says as he walks by, carrying a box of Skiving Snackboxes. He sets it down in front of a shelve and begins unpacking. Harry looks at him oddly. It's not that special, he thinks, it's only Tuesday.

"I don't understand. What is today?" he asks.

"Well, we heard it was your birthday! That is correct, non?" Fred slides into the picture, leaning on the shelf where the Skiving Snackboxes are being unpacked.

Suddenly Harry remembers that yes, today is his and Neville's birthdays, technically. While he was born on June 30th, it was just a minute away from the 31st, so it made sense for the twins to acknowledge it as on the 31st though Harry always celebrated the 30th.

"Yes, yes you're right." Harry looks down in embarrassment.

"Well, for all birthday boys, we are offering a special deal- that means you too, Neville!" Fred points Neville out of a crowd. The boy just walks away out of embarrassment after his name is called out. "The deal is, you can pick out any two items you'd like from the store. One will be free- the lower priced one- and the other, higher price will be half-off. Happy shopping!" Fred and George depart.

"Thanks!" Harry yells after them. He isn't sure what he wants. Everything was pretty cool. He could get a Pygmy Puff, but then Hedwig might be jealous. He could get a love potion, but there was no one he wanted to seduce. He doesn't feel like shirking work with a Skiving Snackboxes either. He decides to go shop around and take a closer look at the items for sale.

Whilst window shopping, Harry witnesses a conversation not far from him between the twins and their younger brother, Ron.

"How much is this?" Ron asks, holding up a box of something, Harry can't see.

"One galleon." Fred replies.

"It's right on the box there." George points out.

"Can't I get a discount on this since I'm- y'know, your poor, young, family member?" Ron pleads with them.

"Sure. That'll be six galleons." Fred jokes.

"But I'm your brother!" Ron exclaims.

"Ten galleons then. For being our brother." Fred smirks.

Draco walks up to the three holding the same exact box as Ron. "There's no price tag on this box, how much is it?"

"Oh! Sorry about that. That'll be half price since there's no tag. So fifty sickles. It's usually one galleon." George says after inspecting the box. It's also got a hole in it about the diameter of a wand. "Again, very sorry, I've no idea what happened here."

"Thank you much, I'll also take a love potion. Full price, if you please." Draco says rather charmingly. Ron scoffs and stares after his brothers, flipping them off before being told off by his mother.

Harry decides to look at the WonderWitch section. It's meant to be for women, but Harry's always been a little effiminate. There's nothing wrong with embracing your feminine side after all. There's the famed love potion and the Pygmy Puffs, but there's also things that interest Harry actually, like the Calamity Lotion and the Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher. He didn't pay much attention to beauty products usually, but seeing as Cho, the love of his life, chose Cedric over him, he's starting to see he can't exactly attract women with broom skills. Of course he's lacking charm in most areas and fierce intelligence, but you can't bottle those. Harry ends up purchasing the beauty products.

The group eventually leaves to go to Madame Malkin's. Once outside the shop, Draco hands Ron a box. It's the item he had wanted a discount on. It appears to be a miniature version of the flying car he had piloted in their second year.

"Oh wow! Thanks," Ron laughs out of shock of receiving the gift from Draco Malfoy.

"You have to know your way around the world, Weasley." Draco winks at him. Ron smiles knowingly.

Inside the robes shop, they move rather quickly. It doesn't take very long to be fitted for robes. The only hold up they had was Draco yanking his arm away from Madame Malkin when she tried to look at the arm which had Draco's bite on it.

Later, Arthur took Harry and Neville aside.

"It's your birthdays, so we're going to do anything you guys want! The others will get the school supplies, but I'll come with you all to do whatever you wish!" Arthur says. Harry and Neville nod.

First they go to Ollivander's. Neville's been using his father's wand this whole time, and he's felt it's hindered him a lot, so he wishes to get a new one, one that suits him. They go through five wands before he's finally able to pick a nice, thirteen inch cherry wand.

Next is Quality Quidditch Supplies. Neville and Arthur basically just let Harry loose in the store. He comes back with about twelve items and not a single regret.

Lastly they go to Flourish and Blotts to catch up with the other Weasley's. The only one there is Ginny who are standing by the entrance.

"Where's everyone else?" Arthur inquires.

"Draco and Hermione ran off. Mom and Ron are out looking for them." Ginny replies.

"Where do you think they might've went?" Neville asks.

"No clue, but I'm not looking for that git." Ginny rolls her eyes. "I can't believe the nerve of him!"

"Me neither." Harry groans. He gets the odd feeling he knows where he went, but he can't go there, Arthur wouldn't allow it. Then he gets an idea. "Hey Neville, I want to go look at the romance section, c'mon!" he grabs Neville's hand and drags him upstairs, out of Arthur's view.

Neville eyes Harry suspiciously as the black-haired boy paces back and forth. "Why did you need me to look at books with you?" he asks.

"Hold on." Harry looks in his countless shopping bags for his invisibility cloak. Finally he finds the one he stashed it in and pulls it out with a bright smile.

"You're... holding air?" Neville asks.

"No, it's my cloak. My invisibility cloak. Get under here," Harry says as he slips it on. He holds up an arm for Neville to duck under. The boy ponders whether or not he should get involved in a Potter plan for a minute until deciding yes, he'll get into a Potter plan and gets under the cloak. The two sneak out of the shop and head to the place Harry suspects Draco and Hermione are.

He didn't expect to run into Hermione sooner than Draco. He thought they'd be together. She was standing just outside Knockturn Alley. She appeared frightened of what laid before her. She didn't seem to want to go in.

"Hey. Psst, Hermione." Harry whispers to her.

She's startled at first, but soon realized it's just Harry under his invisibility cloak and begins talking to him. "Oh, sorry Harry. These people are so weird. I was following Draco, but he disappeared in there. I'm not going alone. Thank goodness you're here." she says. She joins the two under the cloak.

Harry knows exactly where Draco is. Borgin and Burke's. At least, Harry thinks he is. It's the only dark magic shop he knows, and it would be a pain to look through multiple.

They arrive in time to see Draco threatening the shopkeeper, Mr. Borgin.

"I'm in leagues with Fenrir Greyback! I have connections! You'll do this for me or else I can arrange to have your arm bit off!" Draco slams his fist on the counter angrily.

"I'm supposed to just believe that?" Borgin asks. Draco rolls up his sleeve and shows him his arm. Borgin's attitude changes and he chortles. "Ah, I see. Well, I'll see what I can do." he awkwardly laughs.

"Thank you." Draco took a box and left the store. He walks right past the invisibility cloaked trio without pause and looks around cautiously before leaving Knockturn Alley.

"What do you think he bought?" Harry asks the other two underneath the cloak.

"It's his business, not ours." Neville shrugs.

"I don't think it's anything bad." Hermione says. "I know where you're going with this. I don't like it."

"Hermione, I need you to do some... reconnaissance. Go in there and ask Borgin what he sold Draco." Harry says.

"No thanks." Hermione crosses her arms. "If you want to know so bad, do it yourself!"

"I will!" Harry shouts.

Neville puts a finger on Harry's mouth quickly. "Quiet! I'll go, but what do I say?"

"It's Draco's birthday, you wanna give him a gift, but you don't want to get the same thing, duh." Harry says as if it's spying 101.

He waits until Borgin looks away to slip out of the cloak and into the store. He puffs our his chest and puts his hands in his pockets. Harry and Hermione walk closer to the store to get a better look at the current stealth mission. Neville looks outside with an awkward smile. He's such a dork.

"A Longbottom. I can tell by your messy black hair and the chiseled chin. What can I do for ya?" Borgin asks Neville.

"Um, that guy back there, Draco- he- he's my boyfriend and I wanted to know what he purchased so that I don't get him the same thing. It's our anniversary, see, and this is his favorite store." Neville stutters and twiddles his fingers, all while his face is scarlet red. No one is sure whether or not Borgin is taking him seriously. The man leans into Neville's face accusatorily.

"Are you tellin' me the truth, boy? Am I to really believe you're dating Draco Malfoy? A member of one of the most prestiged families?" Borgin looks him up and down. "Proof. Give it here."

"Oh. Okay. Er..." Neville digs down in his pants and pulled out his wallet. He hands the man a picture. It's of Neville and Draco when they were smaller. They're holding hands. The picture version of Neville is able to sneak in a kiss which flusters the picture version of Draco. Neville snatches the picture away from the man quickly after he gets a good look at it. The picture seems very important to him.

"Alright." Borgin says. "He bought a cursed necklace. It kills those who wear it. Its use is too secret, my sincerest apologies, Mr. Longbottom."

"Well, do you have any non-killing necklaces?" Neville asks.

"Nope. I have a knock-off Slytherin's Locket though!" Borgin smiles. He smacks himself on the forehead. "D'oh! I shouldn't have said that."

"I'll take it anyway. I think he'd like that." Neville smiles toothily.

Neville walks out of the shop happily, but soon trips on the cloak and he ends up on top of an invisible Harry. The two just look at each other before Neville hurriedly gets under the cloak next to Hermione.

Harry, Hermione, and Neville walk back to Flourish and Blotts, excitedly chattering about Draco's personal business. They come to a rude awakening when they spot an angry looking Molly Weasley in front of the store. Harry blamed Draco for everything.

That night, Harry got out of bed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night to splash water in his face after he had a horrible nightmare about Draco killing him with the necklace he bought. Harry rubs his eyes as he walks into the bathroom. He opens them to see that Draco is in there with him, washing his face. There seems to be powder coming off on the washcloth he's using.

"You wear make-up?" Harry snickers, half-asleep.

"Yes, Potter. I actually do." Draco responds completely seriously.

"Oh." Harry looks down and frowns.

"I've been meaning to ask, what do you think of Neville?" Draco asks as he rubs his cheeks.

I know what he thinks of you, Harry thinks and sniggers. He decides not to go this route though and tells his opinion. "I think he's nice, but not anyone I'd like to date."

"Interesting. So that's why I heard you talking in your sleep about him? Saying, 'Oh Neville! I can't believe you can kiss so well!', 'Love me harder, Neville!', and my personal favorite, 'Ron doesn't have to know.'" Draco finishes each quote off with a mocking passionate and sexual sigh. Harry blushes.

"So? We all have dumb dreams." Harry scoffs.

"Of course. However, I think it's the funniest thing ever, so I'm just going to laugh at you for all of eternity." Draco says as he leaves the bathroom, finally getting the make-up off his face.

Harry pouted as he splashes his face with water. There was no way he could like Neville. Draco would never let it go if he did.

But if he knew for sure couldn't be with him, why was it so hard to ignore how badly he wanted to?

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AN: hey hey

i think Harry has a gay crush


	8. 7-Saving Mr Potter

AN: sorry I haven't updated in a while! I am a little discouraged by lack of reviews, il admit, and it's hindered me a bit. However, I've also been very busy with schoolwork! Hip hip hooray for the weekend! And hip hip hooray for Haille! The BEST HP ship!

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Neville, Harry, and Draco stayed at the Weasley's for the rest of the summer. Harry had nowhere else to go that was any safer, Neville didn't want to go home to just be alone with no wizard folk around(he didn't enjoy Dudley's company much, and there was no one else his age except for a girl who lives nearer to the park named Aur Creste), and Draco wasn't fond of the home he had when it was being occupied by his aunt.

They had some crazy times at the Weasley's though.

Once, they played Quidditch. It was a nice idea in theory. Then there was the matter of Draco and Harry who hated each other. No one took into account that Harry and Draco would fight over who got to be Seeker for Hermione's team. Eventually it was decided by the very boisterous Ginny that she would be Seeker. So, Hermione and Fleur played against each other as Keepers, Harry and Draco were Chasers on Hermione's team, and Neville and Ron were Chasers on Fleur's team. Bill was the Seeker for her. It was an unfair game to say the least. Harry and Draco, even in their unfamiliar positions, were more advanced players than Neville and Ron. Also, Ginny was an excellent Seeker which no one really expected. The game ended 150-40 with Hermione's team winning.

The best time Neville ever had picking gnomes was at the Weasley's. Draco and Harry were practically flinging the things at each other. Neville and Ron joined in, but it really did get out of hand when a stray gnome was thrown and had hit Hermione who was helping Mrs. Weasley with her dandy-lions. Draco of course became enraged and switched Harry's backside with his wand. He wasn't very fond of hand fighting since it was a "muggle tactic" in his words. They had to clean up the mess after, but it was fun while it lasted.

Draco and Harry hated each other. That was no secret. There are two examples of the hatred of above. For one time, and one time only, they actually did get along. The two were supposed to be asleep, but secretly, they were outside playing Quidditch. Hermione eventually began watching since they were woken by the noise. Weasley's(+ Fleur), for whatever reason, were hard to wake. Neville only woke up to watch because he was headed to the bathroom and noticed Harry was gone. It wasn't a competition really. They were giving each other tips and tricks actually.

Yes it was definitely crazy over there. Harry and Draco never got along!

Now they were all on the train to Hogwarts. Neville had been given a plant from his grandmother on the platform. It was a gift to make up for him not being able to garden magically while she was there. The plant was a mimbulus mimbletonia. It was a cactus-like plant that had boils on it which released Stinksap when prodded. He wanted to show it off to the others, but Hermione didn't think it was a good idea to poke the plant, believe it or not.

There were five in the train compartment. Neville, Hermione, Harry, Ginny, and Ron. Draco was with his Slytherin friends. Neville, Ron, and Harry were sitting normally, but opposite them, Ginny was lying against Hermione and playing with her long curly locks with a childish smile.

"I think Draco's up to something." Harry starts suddenly in the silence of the first few minutes.

"Where's this coming from?" Hermione asks. Everyone is dumbfounded.

"Why would I talk about it when he's in the house?" Harry throws his hands up. "I think he's gonna kill someone with that necklace." Harry points at no one in particular once he gets his eureka moment.

"What necklace?" Ron asks.

"Oh. You weren't there. We were snooping around and we got into Draco's business and ended up finding out about a necklace he bought from Borgin and Burke's which has the ability to kill. We don't know how though." Hermione explains to Ron as she keeps her eye on Harry angrily.

"What! You should have brought me! You never go snooping without me!" Ron exclaims.

"Sorry, but Neville's shorter than you so we fit better under the invisibility cloak." Harry shrugs. Ron considers this for a moment and then nods, agreeing with the point.

"Didn't you hear him the day you guys arrived? He and his parents are spies. He's not actually a Death Eater. 'Sides, Draco's a pansy. He wouldn't even kill Harry given the chance." Ginny says, rolling her eyes. Ron and Hermione snicker and nod.

"You have to admit, that's true." Neville chuckles.

Harry sneers, reaches past Ron with two fingers, and prods the mimbulus mimbletonia. It gets Stinksap everywhere. The sap hits Neville right in the face, Ron on the side, and it gets on Ginny's clothes. At least she hasn't gotten her robes on yet. Neville and Ron are simply dumbfounded, but Ginny is completely pissed off. Neville would normally defend Harry, but whatever Ginny will do, he does probably deserve it. Neville had to admit, his partner in crime had a temper. He's not sure how this will work out against Voldemort who probably knows he can take advantage of this easily.

Ginny stands up and takes out her wand. Harry pulls his out as well. Neville hides behind the plant. He doesn't wish to be involved, but knowing his track record, he will be anyway. The fiery redhead fires a jinx at Harry so fast, Neville can only see the result which is a black eye. Harry didn't even get a chance to fire anything back as he curled up in pain. Ginny then stomped out of the compartment. Ron and Hermione stayed, laughing. Eventually, Hermione cleans the sap up with a charm and fixes Harry's eye.

Soon after, Padma Patil knocks on the door. She asks for Ron and Hermione. The have to go to the prefect meeting. And so, Neville and Harry are left alone in the compartment. It is rather awkward there with him.

"He is planning something." Harry mutters frustratedly, looking down at he floor. "I know it."

"Maybe he didn't know." Neville opines. "Perhaps it wasn't exactly clear to him that the necklace was cursed."

"Oh? And I'm just crazy?" Harry asks rhetorically. Obviously the answer is no. Saying yes would just be being an arse, really. Neville believes it to be true though, that Harry is being an absolute nut about this, but instead of saying yes, he just shakes his head.

"Harry, you need to let this go. You're too old for this." Neville pulls his knees to his chest and looks away from Harry and at the floor. Harry snaps his head toward Neville, who flinches at this, and squints with his mouth agape.

"What are you trying to say?" he says with a pained voice. Neville has unintentionally struck a nerve.

"I'm sayin'... maybe you should just talk to Draco about whatever's bothering you. I mean honestly... why do you guys fight all the t-"

"He's an arsehole! Why else?" Harry yells suddenly, catching Neville off guard and making him bury his head in his knees.

"I mean- if I could befriend him, I'm sure-"

"NO!" Harry roars. "We're not friends." he gets up quickly and opens the luggage storage. He doesn't pull out anything. There's literally nothing there. He shuts the storage and hands Neville air.

"There's nothing here." he says, but then Harry shoves it into his chest impatiently. "What do you want me to take his for?" Neville asks.

"Go to the prefects' cart." Harry commands. Neville stares blankly at him. "Did I stutter?"

"N-no, it's just that I don't quite understand what I am to get out of this."

"Draco is a different person when he isn't around you. I want you to see it for yourself."

"Well I-"

He's cut off by Ginny who runs into the compartment. She massages her head and attempts to open the door with one hand, and failing, Harry opens it for her. She smiles and rolls her eyes cutely.

"This guy, apparently he's our new Potions Professor, he wants us to come meet with him." Ginny says.

"Why?" Harry asks.

"I dunno. He wants Neville too." Ginny says, walking away. Neville and Harry follow her, leaving the invisibility cloak on the seat behind them.

They follow Ginny into another compartment. It's a teacher's compartment, so it's much bigger than the rest of them. There's already a few people in it. The line-up is Blaise Zabini, Cormac McLaggen, Marcus Belby, Theodore Nott, those now entering the compartment, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, and Neville Longbottom, and of course, standing in the middle is Horace Slughorn, the new Potions professor.

"Right then, now that everyone's here I'll introduce you all!" Slughorn says once everyone is seated. Neville isn't quite sure what to think of Slughorn. He's a lot more flamboyant and energetic than Professor Snape, but just because one extreme was bad doesn't mean the other is good by default. In fact, Slughorn's personality is quite unnerving. "This is Blaise Zabini," Slughorn points to Blaise. "Zabini's, what a great family!" he laughs. "Here we have McLaggen. My sources say he's an up and coming Quidditch champ! Don't let me down. Then we have Belby," he motions to him excitedly. "this man has made history! Well, his father has..."

"Actually, it's my uncle, but we haven't been exactly on speaking terms. My dad and him are sort of fighting right now." Marcus corrects him.

"You told me it was your father."

"No I didn't. You came into my compartment and asked me my name. I said Belby and you started yelling about my uncle, sir." Marcus says smartly.

"Whatever! At any rate, this man is related to Damocles. We all know who he is-"

"The one who created the Wolfsbane potion!" Neville pipes up. "I just used that a few months ago." he smiles, glad to have a connection with another person.

"Why is that?" Zabini asks accusatorily.

"None of your business, Blaise." Ginny says, glaring at Zabini out the sides of her eyes. Neville breaths a sigh of relief. He could've gotten Draco expelled for being dangerous to the school.

"I just asked a question-"

"Well you can shut up now because I answered it." she replies, leaning over Theodore Nott to face him and put a finger on his chest.

Slughorn ruffles his mustache. "Right-o. Well. This is Theodore Nott, his father was a friend of mine. This is Ginny Weasley. Allow me to tell you about her hexes! This lovely lady is the best hexed I've ever laid eyes on! I was walking by Zacharias Smith's compartment-"

"I love this part." Ginny smiles evilly.

"-and I heard, batius snatius! I looked in, and what do you know? A perfect bat-bogey hex! No-one ever does it right! It was created by Miranda Goshawk, as you know, but she was the only one who ever did it right! So that is why Miss Weasley is here today. For her amazing hexes." he claps for her at the end of his statement.

"Oh, thank you." Ginny grins graciously, putting a hand on her bust.

"Here we have Neville Longbottom," Slughorn waves to Neville. The blonde blushes at his name being announced aloud. "my sources tell me he will be an auror like his parents! Is it true?"

"I don't really want-" Neville looks at the gathered people there before finishing the statement. They're all expecting him to say he'll definitely be an auror. That he'll avenge his parent's memories, but truth be told, he doesn't want to be an auror, or anything of he sort. He wants to do something quiet. To garden. To stay out of the way of danger. He really can't, now that he's the co-chosen one, but he never asked for that in the first place. He could lie and say Slughorn's right, but he'd rather opt for the truth. "-to be... that... I'd rather be a gardener. Or a herbologist. Professor Sprout's already offered me her job when she retires."

"That's disappointing. Extremely so. I'm sure you are aware of how disappointing that is?" Slughorn asks. "Then please, leave my graces." he shoos Neville out as if he's a stray cat on his porch. Neville is at first confused, but finally concedes and leaves. On his way out, he runs into Hermione who had been notified that she was wanted in Slughorn's compartment. He nods a greeting to her and leaves.

It was embarrassing, but what could he do about it? He couldn't stand up to Slughorn, he was a teacher. Neville just didn't have the nerve for that. Right now he was crying on the inside as he was away. He heads back to his compartment without Harry or anyone who was in the compartment with them. When he opens the door, he sees nothing. He feels everything though when he gets punched in the shoulder. He falls to the ground and looks at his attacker's feet. They're visible, yet everything else isn't, including the fist.

The assaulter flips up the cloak and has an expression of shock on his freckled face. He gasps at the fallen Neville. It's Ron. Harry was right, he is too tall for the invisibility cloak.

"Are you alright? Bloody hell, Neville. I didn't punch you that hard. It was just a prank, sorry, that was dumb of me." he takes the invisibility cloak under his arm and gives Neville a hand up.

"I'm fine. Sorry, I'm fragile right now." Neville replies, feeling as if he'd cry on the spot.

"What happened? The prefect meeting was great. We've got a few new rules. All by me! Now we can go into any house common room as long as we don't go into the dormitories, that way friends of different houses can see each other in places other than the hall. Same goes for he Great Hall tables.

We can also go into girl's dormitories of the same house and age group. That way if Harry and or I need to go talk to Hermione, we can." he smiles dorkily. "But uh... What's bugging you? I thought you went to the Slug Club. The dude who invited 'Mione was pretty excited about it." Ron asks. Neville tells him of Slughorn's compartment. "That- that- that bloody bugger! What's his deal? Making people cry? He acts like they're his prized pets! Ugh."

"I know..." Neville sits down. "He embarrassed me in front of everyone." he grabs his mimbulus mimbletonia and cuddles the pot.

Ron stands there and taps his foot. Then, he gets an idea. Neville sulks. He doesn't like it when Ron gets ideas. They all backfire horrendously. "Give me your plant! Take the cloak. Don't question it." Neville does as told and makes the switch. Ron runs off.

"NEVILLE WAKE UP!"

Neville jumps out of his seat and stands quickly. He's quite startled from Hermione yelling like that. He throws the invisibility cloak over himself. He doesn't want to be there right now. Hermione grabs it off him and flings it into the other seat.

"Do you mind explaining this?" she points to herself which is covered in Stinksap. "It's your plant."

"I didn't know what Ron was going to do with it!" Neville says, shrugging his shoulders and furrowing his brow.

"Well, what he did with it, was cover the entire teacher's compartment with Stinksap! I am appalled, honestly." she moans.

Ron rushes in and plops down on the seat across from Neville, burying his head in it. "He didn't do it! It was me!" he tilts his head up and shouts.

"I know that, dumbarse." Hermione growls.

Harry walks in with the plant. He's also covered in Stinksap. He's very amused by Ron's prank, actually.

"I think you're overreacting, Hermione." he says, putting the plant down. He grabs the cloak from the seat and throws it over himself. "Well, I have spying to do. I'll see you guys later." he says walking out of the compartment, snapping his fingers at his friends as he does so. It's really dorky, but Neville can't help but laugh and blush as if it's directed right at him.

"Are we gonna follow him?" Ron asks, he's curled up into a ball now.

"No, let him do whatever he feels is right. He's just going to pester Draco, you know." Hermione says, sitting down. Neville sits beside her. She's right. Whatever Harry's up to, it's nothing too troubling.

Later that night, they pull into the Hogsmeade Station. Neville already has his robes on, and the train workers have already taken his luggage. He's ready to leave the train. Something's biting at him though. He feels lost and helpless. He's perfectly fine emotionally, and yet he feels like crying and calling- no- shouting for help. He doesn't hear anything. It's just him. So why does he feel like this?

"I'm screwed..." he hears someone whisper. Who's saying that? It feels like it's all in his mind because no one's reacting.

"Hermione, Ron, did you hear that? Someone just said 'I'm screwed'... I think it was Harry." Neville says, worried about Harry mostly, but also about himself. He hopes he isn't crazy.

"No, Neville. What are you talking about?" Hermione asks.

Neville just shakes his head. "Nevermind it."

The three leave the train. Neville's the last one out as his question had delayed the trio, but while Hermione and Ron aren't worried since they know Harry can handle himself, Neville is sick to death with worry. The final straw is hearing the voice in his head again.

"Oh god... someone... anyone... just come here and help me!" it speaks. It's definitely Harry!

Neville whips around and dashes back into the now empty train. He runs as quickly as his body will push him to. It's the most athletic he's ever been in his life. He hurries to where he can hear voices. It's Draco's! He stops at his compartment. He presses his ear to the door.

"And that's for my father in Azkaban!" Draco yells before kicking Harry in the stomach.

He screams in pain and in turn so does the voice in Neville's head. This makes him crumble to his feet and clutch his abdomen in pain. He gets up, attempting to push the pain out of his mind and throws open the door just as Draco gets done smashing Harry's face in. Neville pulls out his wand and yells, "Stupefy!" making Draco get blown back and thrown into the wall. Neville helps Harry up carefully and then he picks Draco up and carries him out of the train bridal style.

"I can't believe you saved me. You're amazing. How did you realize I was gone? Not even Ron or Hermione came..." Harry says, feeling his nose to see if it's broken.

Neville wants to tell Harry that he somehow read his mind, but doesn't want to freak him out, so he decides to lie about it. "I just so happened to notice. Ron and Hermione said you could take care of yourself, but I was getting really worried." it was technically a half-truth.

"Thanks," Harry looks directly in Neville's eyes. "I really appreciate it." Harry smiles. Neville looks away quickly, blushing.

"N-no problem." Neville says, clearly flustered at Harry's attention. Sometimes he wonders if Harry actually likes him. Well, he knows he likes him, but he wonders if he likes him. Its a weird feeling, thinking someone likes you, but you don't reciprocate it. He should be up front about it. "Harry, do you like me? Like that?" he asks, blushing.

"No, why? I have my eye on someone else, I think." Harry replies coolly.

"Oh. Cool. Who?" Neville asks, genuinely curious. Not jealously or anything.

"Oh um... Well, you know Ron's sister, right? Ginny."

"She's a lesbian." Neville says quickly. He stops walking and becomes wide-eyed. "Th-that was a secret. Sorry, Harry... She's dating Luna secretly. Michael Corner is her beard right now."

"Oh, it's fine. I wasn't even sure if I liked her. Hey! There's the Thestrals! We made it, finally!" Harry grabs Neville's arm and tugs him and Draco over to the cart. Neville has to admit, he can be cute sometimes. Oh what was he saying? He couldn't like Harry. It would ruin their friendship completely.

He was already awkward around him because he was quite frankly, cooler. Imagine how much worse he would become. Neville does appreciate his ability to somehow connect with Harry's mind. It will prove useful for fighting He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. He doesn't have control of it just yet, and he doesn't plan on telling Harry about it anytime soon, but he gets the feeling this newfound power will somehow bring them closer.


	9. 8-Advert Kadavra

AN: The Dramione plot line starts now! Chapter twelve should bring it to a stop for a while though. The main pairing is Haville after all

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The school year has just started. The first years have been sorted, the classes have started, Harry and Draco have gotten their respective medical treatment after their run-in, Snape is teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts(ugh) and Slughorn's teaching Potions(which is great), and Neville's actually started dating Seamus Finnegan. It's weird, but Seamus' ex is currently bearding for Ginny(and enjoying every second of it) so it seems he's trying to make him jealous. Harry doesn't care though. Everything is going smoothly. Well, was. It was going smoothly.

All of Hogwarts has erupted into chaos after an advertisement appeared in the Slytherin common room and spread within just weeks to the other houses. It's mainly the women clamoring over it, but Harry has no idea why. It's just an ad asking for an animagus, someone who can transfigure themselves into an animal without a wand or incantation, to meet the advertiser at the Whomping Willow on September 31st.

Suspicious, definitely. It said it wanted to date someone powerful. They advertised everything but their name(age, gender, height, hair color, etc.). It truly was suspicious.

The Gryffindor common room, like the rest, has exploded into utter chaos and discord about the advertisement. Harry expected those like Parvati and Lavender to be chasing after something like this. He didn't expect Hermione "I only care about books" Granger to be all over the guy, whoever it was. She's practically up to her nose in books as she sits on the couch at 8:00PM on a Saturday, the week before the ad's preferred date, and reads through every animagus how-to book she can find.

Harry moves a book and plops down beside her, startling the brunette to the point where she drops the current book she was reading, The Animal Inside: How to Become the Animagus You've Always Wanted To Be. She snorts and crosses her arms, leaning back into the couch.

"What is it? I'm really busy." she groans. Harry scoots closer to her. Not in a romantic way or anything, she's like a sister and he knows Draco likes her, but she's obviously stressed since she's had so little time to prepare for this test of her abilities she's decided to take. He wants to ease that.

"What's going on? You've been really tense lately." Harry says with a much calmer tone than he feels. He's really worried. Her eyes are bloodshot, and she has bags under them. She's been really into this. "You're not seriously considering doing this are you?" he holds up the poster.

"It's the only choice I have. I have a better chance at surviving with magic than he does." Hermione snaps, catching Harry off guard.

"What- what do you mean?" he asks, narrowing his eyes as if it will make her meaning clearer.

He finally sees the meaning as Ron struts down the steps from the dormitories and puts a hand over his mouth, yawning. It's not something that's usually annoying. Ron Weasley found a way. It upsets Hermione as well as Harry. He sits down beside Harry on top of a book.

"Are you trying to become an animagus, 'Mione? To impress that dude? Sorry, but I've got it in the bag." Ron laughs as he pretends to skim a book, The Animal Anomaly: Everything You Need to Know About Animagi.

Harry furrows his brow. He's known Ron for years and never has he ever even looked at another man sexually no less tried to get with one. "R-Ron! You can't be- you were just making fun of me months back for liking Neville!"

Ron quickly points his finger at Harry who flinches. "Aha! So you do like Neville!"

"No! I just..." Harry looks down and blushes. "That's not the point. Are you interested in this guy? Like as in... for a boyfriend?"

"Not at all. I'm just doing this because-"

"Yes! Let's hear it Ron! Why?" Hermione yells, shielding her face with a book.

"None of your business!" he screams back. Hermione shoves her nose further in the book. Ron turns back to Harry and pulls him towards him by the shoulder. "I'll tell you though, heh." he whispers. "I decided to do this to make Hermione jealous." he smiles as if it's the best idea he's ever had. "As you can see, it's working."

"No way. You like-" Harry's voice loudens from a murmur to an exclamation with every word until Ron shushes him.

"Let's talk later. I need to show you something."

Harry sits on his bed, dangling his feet in boredom. Ron had tried five times already to transform into his animal form.

"Dude, come on to bed. We can do this in the morning." Harry moans as he lays in his bed, turned on his side, away from Ron who stands in front of his bed. He's attempted this nearly impossible transformation and failed so many times it's gotten boring.

"No! Lucky number six! Six is my lucky number! Let's go!" Ron exclaims.

Harry sits up and indulges his best friend, giving him his full attention. To his surprise, this time, Ron's eyes turn white as he slowly transforms into a Jack Russel terrier. He turns back quickly and falls over on his back when he realizes this.

"Woah." Ron says. He chuckles and his chuckling starts turning into guffaws. "I can't believe it! I did it!"

"What! I mean, I am impressed of course, but the way you were talking, you sounded like you'd done this tons of times!" Harry says sternly.

"I know, sorry for misleading you. I had to in front of Hermione, you know."

"Thanks for waking us up, Weasley!" Seamus Finnegan growls. He puts his pillow around his ears.

Ron looks over at him and looks back at Harry with a smile. "Well. I did it."

"Good, now come to bed." Harry says, slipping under his covers.

* * *

"WHAT! YOU CANT BE SERIOUS!"

"Calm down, Harry. This will be your only lesson together." Dumbledore chuckles lightly and motions for Harry to quiet down. "I thought the two of you liked each other's company."

Harry blushed furiously. He quickly turned his head to look at Neville in the seat next to him. He's not blushing at all! Did Harry just have his mind in the gutter? Probably. Nevertheless, he replies once he recollects his wits, "Yes, but I thought it'd just be you and me, Professor."

"After this it will be, but the both of you need this specific information before I start your separate learning. It would be absurd to have two different lessons on the same thing, don't you think?" Dumbledore grins at Harry's frown.

"Yeah, Harry. It'll be more fun together!" Neville says with that goofy smile that Harry can't decide if he loves or hates. Whichever it may be, it causes Harry to nod.

They all rise from their chairs and gather by the pensieve. At the pensieve, Dumbledore takes out a vial from his robe. It contains a silver hair. He picks the hair up out of its container and drops it into the pensieve and the blank image in it changes to a bright summer morning. When all three look into the image, they become lost in it, and eventually they are in the image, the memory more like.

They're all walking down a trail. It's beautifully bright. The sun is shining upon the lilies and daisies, the brown path of dirt they walk on, and the green-leaved trees and bushes. It doesn't look like there's a cloud in the sky. Harry smiles. This is paradise.

The three are walking behind a red-haired man. He has a long beard of the same color. Harry runs up to his side since he looks oddly familiar. When he spots the man's face, he realizes it's a younger Dumbledore. In a way he resembles Ron a little.

"What are we doing here? What's this memory?" Harry turns back around to ask, now starting to walk backwards.

"Patience, Harry, patience." Dumbledore called after him.

Eventually they made it to an orphanage on a small hill. It was quite quaint. They walked in he building and into a small office room. The young Dumbledore began talking to a young lady who seemed to run the place.

"I'm so glad you've decided to take Tom off our hands." she says. "He's such trouble."

Quickly Harry spots the bourbon under her desk. The young Dumbledore spots this as well, but pays no mind to it. "Well it's only for the two semesters, you know. You'll have him back all summer." he replies.

"Well in any case, let me show you to him." she pushes back her seat and leads the quartet up to the rooms. It is one of the rooms that they spot an ebony-haired eleven year-old boy sitting on his bed by his lonesome. The woman left the two alone.

The boy appears confused as to why Dumbledore was there. He scoots away from the stranger and holds one of his pillows. His green eyes waver in, not fear, but bemusement.

"Dumbledore, who is this boy?" Harry asks.

"'Patience, Harry, patience.'" Neville repeats. Dumbledore nods wisely at him. Harry scoffs angrily.

Later on, after the first training session with Dumbledore ended, Harry and Neville split their ways. Harry going solo, and Neville catching up with Seamus Finnegan to roam the school. Harry wasn't too close with Seamus before this year, but now it seemed as if they were enemies. Not on Harry's part, but on Seamus'. He appeared to be extremely jealous of Harry as Neville walked out of Dumbledore's office with him. As if they were doing anything! _They_ weren't anything. _They_ were just friends. _They_ were nothing more.

Harry crashes on the couch in the Gryffindor room. Everything was horrible with Dumbledore and Neville. It was as if Harry was being replaced by himself.

Himself likes to GARDEN.

Neville does deserve a little attention after all the years of harassment he's received, but why did he have to take his spotlight? Why couldn't he be the apple of Molly Weasley's eye? Or Lucius Malfoy's? It just had to be Dumbledore. Sure Harry's not as patient or even as kind, and maybe he tried to kick the memory of Tom Riddle as a kid in the nuts while Neville and Dumbledore looked on in horror, but he was still Dumbledore's protege.

His original protege.

No one could change that. Not even Neville "My-Weapon-Is-Gardening" Longbottom.

A scream of rage interrupted his thoughts as Hermione stomps into the common room from the halls. She sits down on the couch with Harry and crosses her arms, huffing about something. Harry understands what about when Ron walks in as well. He's angry too, but he just walks past the couch and into the boy's dorm.

"Harry, in five days, I'm going out to the Whomping Willow for the ad. Ron is too, and I'm worried about him. Please, can you watch from a distance or someth-" Hermione began speaking by was cut off by Harry suddenly raising up. He smiles warmly.

"Say no more 'Mione. I've got your back." Harry says.

"Ron just doesn't know what he's getting into. I know why he's doing it. I've known he likes me for the longest time. It's very obvious. However, that ad is not to be messed with. It's like an Unforgivable Curse, who's dumb enough to go through with it? That ad is for an animagus, not a hot girl like everyone's misconstrued it.

"It's quite clearly made by a werewolf. So this isn't a very light matter. I've been trying to convince Ron of this, but he keeps saying I'm just jealous of his skills!" Hermione groans. "What a- oh... I'm sorry Harry, I've rambled on for a while haven't I? Thank you so much for letting me rant like always." she smiles.

"Of course, that's what I'm here for, to listen." Harry pulls her into a hug. "I will be there for you. I promise."

Harry had been camping out in the Oaken Tree right in front of the Whomping Willow for god knows how long. He watched on as numerous girls broke the grounds rules to come out in regards to the ad. The number was ten. It was so dumb. If only they understood what was about to happen, maybe they wouldn't have came out.

The Hogwarts girls seemed to be having fun at least since they were showing each other their animal forms. One Ravenclaw could briefly turn into a woodpecker for a few seconds, another could transform into a cat. A Slytherin could turn into an owl. She was the best yet since she lasted about a minute before her body had had enough and transfigured herself back.

Everything seemed cheerful and fun until Hermione showed up chasing Ron. He was greeted with smiles from the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs but looks of confusion from the Ravenclaws and a few sneers from Slytherin. Almost everyone sneered at Hermione. Especially Pansy Parkinson.

"Oh Granger, why waste your time? The guy in the ad is looking for a girl who can turn into an animal, not a book." she smirks, proud of her snide remark.

"I don't have time for jokes, Parkinson! Do you all not realize what's going on? Have you stopped to wonder why this guy is asking for an animagus?" Hermione asks, extremely frustrated with the sneering Slytherin girl.

"'Cause he wants someone totally smart and stuff." a Hufflepuff answers with pep. Hermione stares a hole of confusion through her.

"No!" Hermione screams. "He's a werewolf!" she flails her arms as if it will help her case. Everyone lets out a collective gasp. Ron struts up to his friend and puts an arm around her. She becomes angry at this. She looks as if she's about to explode from all of her building rage.

"Hermione, Hermione... Don't be a spoil-spurt. I'm sure this dude isn't a werewolf. He just wants an animagus because he's into really powerful witches and wizards." Ron says, waving away her suspicions as if they're flimsy and built upon nothing. This seems to calm the other girls down.

"Oh yeah? Then what's that?" she points at the Whomping Willow's entrance. Harry almost falls out of the tree at the sight of it. It's a werewolf!

Or is it? It's clearly not. He's been up close and personal with a werewolf, and he has enough sense to know that's a normal wolf. It's not general knowledge that wolves and werewolves have different snouts and tails though, so everyone runs away except for Hermione and Ron.

Hermione draws out her wand and transfigures the beast back into a button before it can pounce. It was Harry's idea actually. He came up with it yesterday as a way to get the girls out of danger.

"Hermione, why are you doing this? Everything's fine!" Ron yells at her, getting right in her face. His cheeks are so red that his freckles are blending into his skin color.

"I'm sorry for being worried about you!" she yells back sarcastically.

"There probably was no werewolf. You just wanted that guy all to yourself." Ron kneads his brow in contempt with the bushy-headed girl in front of him. All of a sudden her face goes pale with fright and she gulps loudly. Ron turns around and jumps.

"Malfoy!" Ron screeches as the blonde appears from under the Whomping Willow, brushing his pants off. He must've caught Ron off-guard. "You gave me a bloody start." the ginger seethes, looking away.

"Oh, Ms. Granger is correct. There is a werewolf." Malfoy smirks. He drops it once he realizes Ron and Hermione are the only ones there. "I didn't expect you to run off all of my animagi." he grumbles.

Of course. Harry should have known Malfoy was the one who posted the ad. There had to be something to this. Harry already knew Draco had bought the deadly necklace and that he might be affiliated with the Death Eaters.

Back on the train when he was being beat up, Draco mentioned that it was revenge for his father. After further questioning, it was revealed to him that Draco was lying at he Weasley's. It was at that moment that Harry wanted to beat him back.

Unfortunately, he was hidden and was to remain that way. So what could Draco be planning for the Death Eaters? A werewolf army? A destruction of Hogwarts from the inside? There was no end to the possibilities.

While his mind wandered on about Draco, the branch underneath him was snapping. Eventually, he falls down onto the ground, hard. He groans in pain. Nothing's broken, but everything hurts.

"I knew you had something to do with this." Malfoy spits.

"What are you up to, Malfoy? Werewolf army? Hmm?" Harry asks aggressively. He says this while staring at the school, he can't actually turn around to face Draco for the pain.

"I'm not up to anything. I would just rather not harm myself while being a werewolf." Draco says. "I can't get potions from Professor Snape either because he's not allowed to touch those anymore, being a Defense teacher now. I don't trust Slughorn's, honestly."

"Oh!" Harry yells. "Well that's perfectly reasonable!" he says angrily.

"Harry, let me get you back to the castle." Ron picks up Harry bridal style. Harry screeches from the pain.

"I'll stay here." Hermione says. "I've already signed up as a certified animagus. Unlike some people." she raises an eyebrow.

"Hey, I never said I was the best. 'Mione, are you sure about that?" Ron asks, apprehensive about leaving her and Draco alone. She nods and he walks away reluctantly.

"Ron, stop pacing and come to bed." Harry groans from under the sheets. He's holding open the Marauder's Map and watching the two dots labeled "Hermione Granger" and "Draco Malfoy". They're just staying stationary in the Forbidden Forest. He doesn't want to watch them, but it's the only way to satiate Ron.

"Harry! I can't sleep thinking about her! What if she accidentally turns back to her human form and he kills her? Or what if he kills her anyway? Or what if she accidentally leads him into the school? Or Hogsmeade? What if-"

"Ron, stop. She's fine, I'm sure. It's Hermione we're talking about. Who saved us from the Devil's Snare in our first year?" Harry asks with a goofy smile. Oh my god. I've been hanging out with Neville too much, he thinks as he looks down at the map in embarrassment.

"Hermione." Ron answers Harry's question, snapping him back into reality.

"Who gave us the hint to the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry continues as if nothing had happened.

"Hermione." Ron answers again.

"Who-"

"I get it!" Ron yells, holding his arms out in anger. "Just check the map one last time, please."

Harry rolls his eyes. He stares at the map and focuses in on the part at the Whomping Willow. He realizes something.

They're both gone.

He can't tell Ron this of course. The poor guy would have a heart attack. He wouldn't get any rest at all. The best thing to do right now is to lie and sneak off.

"Well?" Ron asks impatiently. "Are they still-"

"Yes! Yes they're- they're perfectly fine. Nothing to worry about!" Harry says, oddly cheery. He's not good at lying to Ron. "Go to bed." Harry commands him.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Ron asks as he slips into the bed next to him. "What did you see? You should tell me in the morning."

"Right! Right. Of course. It's not anything on the map. It's fine. Everything's fine. Hermione's fine. Draco's fine. Everyone's fine." Harry says, having a small panic attack while folding up the map and putting it under the sheets which he gets out of. "I'll be back. In a bit." he lies further.

He crawls over to Neville's bed and shakes him awake. This proves to be a challenge as it takes at least a minute or two to rouse him. Neville only turns over though.

"What do you want, Harry? It's like two in the morning." he mumbles.

"Come with me. I need back up." Harry stands up with a tense in his movement. He looks over at Ron's bed. Ron's not looking over. "We need to hurry. It's about the Hermione and the ad."

"Oh that? I didn't think Hermione would fall for something like that. It was kind of obvious that guy was a werewolf." Neville says. "Also pretty obvious it was Draco, too."

"Whatever! It doesn't matter now so get up and come on! We have to save Hermione!"

"She's not in any danger if she's an animagi." he murmurs.

"They're gone, Neville! I can't find them on the Marauder's Map!"

"What's that?"

"No time! Just get up!" Harry whispers harshly.

"Fine." Neville rises out of the bed and slips on his slippers beside the four-poster. Harry does a small fist pump in victory. Neville quietly chuckles at Harry's dorky nature as he stands by the door. He gets that goofy smile that Harry loves to hate.

Tonight would be a long night.

* * *

AN: So this is probably goof to be hard to notice so I'm just going to say that the Dramione plot line is based off of Beauty and the Beast for obvious reasons.


	10. 9-Forbidden For a Reason

AN: I just got HP and the Cursed Child Saturday and I'm so so so so happy! I ship Scorbus sooooo hard omg

(so ye scorbus will be canon at the end, just different pairings)

* * *

Neville hadn't heard from the voice in his head for a while now. That may sound crazy at first, but it was totally possible according to Hermione. Thankfully she wasn't as suspicious as usual, but she explained to him that Legilimens can accidentally send out their thoughts to those they have deep attachments to. Neville thought this to be weird though since he wasn't as close to Harry as Ron or Hermione were, but he didn't question her further so as not to raise her suspicion. Instead, he questioned Dumbledore after Harry had left. He explained the situation under the promise of confidentiality, and he received an answer he didn't really want from the headmaster.

"The only way for the two of you to be closer than for him to be closer to say, Ron, is- and don't get me wrong, I'm sure you're good friends- for you to be connected by the prophecy. He likely accidentally gained it from Voldemort(Neville flinched at the use of the name.). I'm sure the two of you will grow closer on this journey together as you already have." Dumbledore had said. It wasn't a satisfying answer, but Neville dealt with it.

Now he was dealing with Harry's exorbitant sense of adventure. He didn't really want to be in the Forbidden Forest after hours, but he couldn't let Harry go alone like he knew he'd do. Harry wasn't scared of anything which was worrying. That meant he'd do everything to reach his goals. Sometimes Neville sort of wished the Sorting Hat sorted Harry into Slytherin so he didn't have to get caught up in his silly travels that end up getting them in trouble.

That wasn't to say he didn't care about Harry. He wanted the best for him. The best for him was to keep him as safe as possible. Going to the Forbidden Forest at two in the morning was not a safe idea. This was going completely against Neville's better judgement. He should've known better than to indulge in Harry's crackpot theories which always lead to the aforementioned trouble.

"Harry?" Neville whispers to the shorter boy in front of him.

"What?" Harry whips around angrily as if Neville's soft spoken voice might startle some dangerous animal that might be lurking around.

"I just think it'd be a good idea to go back." Neville says, pointing to the castle.

"We're so close!" Harry stares a hole through his friend. He grabs Neville's arm.

Neville looks down at the gesture with a troubled look. He wants to go with Harry to make him happy, but he wants to stay out of the adventure at the same time. He decides to go with his gut and the latter, jerking his arm away from the younger boy. This sudden movement causes Harry to yell out in frustration, running deeper into the forest.

Neville stands in his spot, proud of his decision. He turns to leave the forest, but he hears a voice.

"I should've listened... someone... help..." it says. This time Neville is sure it's Harry's, but he's not anywhere around, so it must be the Legilimency.

Neville breaks into a run and dashes deep into the forest's heart, jumping and ducking over tree limbs and fallen trees. He manages to take the path without any danger besides the plant life. Eventually though, he gets to Harry who is being attacked by a small piece of Devil's Snare. A little anti-climactic in Neville's opinion.

"Harry..." Neville mutters. "Devil's Snare? Really? This is child's play." he pulls out his wand and casts Lumos Maximus, covering the entire forest in white light. The plant shrivels up and dies.

"Thanks." Harry mumbles, looking down in embarrassment. "Let's go. I'm sure Hermione and Draco are fine."

"Glad you're seeing it my way." Neville smiles. "Oh, uh, could you hold this?" he asks, handing Harry something before walking on.

"Neville?" Harry asks as they walk back to the school.

"Whatever could it be, Mr. Devil's Snare?" Neville asks, looking at Harry with a cheeky smile.

"Th-this is your h-hand..." Harry stammers, flustered at the prospect of holding hands with Neville.

"Well we can't have part one of the Chosen Duo getting eaten by some overgrown Mercury Deertraps." Neville laughs. Harry doesn't find it all too funny.

"That's not a thing, right? There aren't Venus Flytraps so huge they could eat a deer, right?"

"What's a Venus Flytrap?" Neville asks, trying to seem completely serious, but really he's only joking. Harry gulps. "Look, we don't have to hold hands." the blonde says, throwing up his hands. His right hand is quickly snatched back by Harry's left. He's completely silent.

"You know," Neville laughs. "this reminds me of the time when we were first years and we went through the forest... except now it's just me and you." Neville looks down shyly at Harry who bites his lip, cautiously choosing his next words.

He goes with, "Yeah."

Neville stops at the entrance. He hears something faint. He puts his hand on Harry's shoulder as a sign for him to stop. The shorter boy looks up in confusion. Then, he hears it too. It's a low growl, almost like a wolf's. However, it sounds human. Neville recognizes it immediately.

It's a werewolf.

Neville grabs Harry's forearm as fast as he can before the werewolf comes into view and makes a run for it. Harry eventually frees himself of Neville's grasp but runs alongside him since his life basically depends on it.

Their scared looks are replaced by confused ones as the werewolf runs right past them into the deeper forest. The two stop, the danger is gone, so they can turn back, right?

"We gotta see what's going on." Harry says adamantly so Neville knows he's not just joking around. It doesn't keep him from being worried though, and Harry senses this. "You saw what he did. He just ran right past us. It's a miracle that might not happen twice, but we have to take advantage of it."

"Curiosity killed the stag, Harry." Neville warns. Harry scoffs and jogs into the forest, leading Neville along. They soon break into a run and start to trail the werewolf.

They arrive at a clearing. It's surrounded by thick foliage and many other pieces of flora, like thick trees, vines, and every few feet or so, a bush. A little light from the full moon shines down upon it, making it appear as if the plants are glossy and turquoise, almost like jade. It's peaceful and beautiful.

Neville smiles at its serenity and walks straight into the middle. "How can this exist in the Forbidden Forest? It's absolutely, bloody breath-taking." he laughs at the irony of the name. "Doesn't it almost feel as if they were keeping this from us?" the sight of the amazing area is enough to make him forget about the werewolf, at least for a minute.

"In a way." Harry responds. He holds his arm shyly. He brushes his hair back to the point where his scar is visible. Neville rarely saw it, and it wasn't exactly the prettiest thing he had laid his eyes on, but it was special. It was what made Harry the chosen one.

Harry walks closer to Neville, holding his arm again. His green eyes are like the jade foliage surrounding them; stunningly alluring. Neville holds out his hand, which Harry takes. Suddenly, Neville pulls him closer, which the blonde didn't think he even had the bravery to do. It was heat of the moment, like everything that was about to transpire here. Harry's eyes flicker between Neville's face and his hands. Then, he takes a step back while still holding hands with the taller boy. They begin ballroom dancing even though there's no music. It's only them under the moonlight, gazing into each other's green eyes, jade and olive, with Harry pressing his head closer to kiss...

That is, until a frenzied Hermione Granger jumps out of the rose bushes to interrupt their moment. Her hair has twigs and leaves in it and she just looks disheveled in general.

"What the hell are you doing, you bloody boneheads? Were you dropped on your heads as babies? It's called the Forbidden Forest for a reason!" she screams at them in a condescending manner.

"Hermione! You're okay!" Neville says happily, letting go of Harry's hands and stepping towards Hermione a bit. Harry falls flat on his face. Neville quickly helps him up.

"Forget about me! Just get out of here!" Hermione yells, waving her arms and running towards the two. "There are wolves back there! I ran from them, but I think they're still following me, now come on!" Hermione explains, pushing them away from the direction she came from.

Suddenly they stop before they're out of the clearing. There's a rustling in the foliage. Harry dashes in front of Neville to protect the taller boy. Hermione dashes in front of Harry to protect him in case it's Draco.

But it's not. It's a Jack Russell Terrier. And then Draco.

Hermione transforms into her animagus form, an otter, in case the werewolf attacks Harry and Neville. Her transformation makes the werewolf noticeably happier, though it still looks as dangerous as it is. Maybe it's not happiness Neville sees in Draco's eyes, but relief? It's enough to make anyone wonder what happened. It's as if he found her after losing her. Neville wonders what happened in the forest.

Whatever relief Draco had disappears after the wolves Hermione said were chasing her show up. She hides behind Draco and he dashes between Neville and Harry to fend them off. The Jack Russell Terrier barks for the two humans to follow it. They do so with pleasure. Harry tried to grab Hermione, but he had to leave her when she bit his finger angrily as a sign that she was going to stay put.

The three end up at the entrance of the forest next to Hagrid's hut. The Jack Russell Terrier suddenly transforms into Ron. Neville stares at the red-haired boy in shock. He didn't think Ron was capable of such a feat.

"I knew something bad happened when you checked the map, Harry. I came out here as soon as you guys left." Ron explains. "Now, it's been a long day. Can we all just go to bed?"

"Yeah," Harry says, slipping his invisibility cloak over him and Neville.

* * *

By October, the Hogsmeade visits were beginning. Neville never had the best times in Hogsmeade.

His first year in Hogsmeade he had been enjoying a simple lollipop before it was taken from him by an invisible force.

The second year he was snowed in with Seamus Finnegan when he accidentally stayed too long at The Three Broomsticks. It got pretty tense and hot there for a minute. Dean Thomas would've freaked if he found out.

The third year he was practicing some charms and accidentally hit Ginny Weasley with a Petrificus Totalus. He tried to run, but when Ginny was unfrozen, attempting to run from her was like a gazelle trying to run from a cheetah.

Hopefully his fourth year in Hogsmeade wouldn't turn out so sour.

Thankfully, it's been pretty good. The first day at least. It was nice out, the sun was shining, but it was also snowing lightly. It always snowed in Hogsmeade no matter what day of the year it was. Also, Neville was able to buy a lollipop and actually finish it without anything happening to it. Yes, it was shaping up to be a good day.

That is, until Draco came in. It was all downhill from there.

Neville walks back to Hogwarts with some bags filled with candy from Honeydukes. Then, just as he's passing by the space in-between Dervish & Banges and Dogweed and Deathcap, the mischievous Draco Malfoy pulls him into the alleyway with him. Neville's so startled that he drops his bags, smashing the peanut brittle he had chosen to buy. Naturally he's angry at Draco for this.

"Why did you-" he begins to yell, rather loudly. He had never gotten to that volume. The nickname "Meekbottom" hadn't spread unfounded. However, Draco had interrupted him by shoving his hand over Neville's mouth, effectively muffling him.

Draco looks around slyly and chooses to remove his hand from his friend's lips, shushing him as he does so. "I need to get out of here really quickly, but I have a proposal for you." he says with a wide grin. He rummages through a black bag around his shoulder which is also attached to his belt which makes it look sort of like a fanny pack. He pulls out a vial with pink liquid contained within it. Neville barely recognizes it.

"A love potion?" Neville asks. He doesn't question Draco's need to leave, he doesn't wish to get involved.

"Yeah. I don't know who you'd use it on... but it doesn't matter. After now I probably won't be able to talk to you so I have to say this real quick. Will you trade this love potion for the task of creating Wolfsbane Potions for me until summer?" Draco asks. Neville's eyes widen. Love potions aren't to be joked about. You never know when a love potion has been made too strong. One potion should only last for twenty-four hours and cause slight attraction, like wanting a kiss. Unfortunately, most people brew it wrong and the attraction turns into demand.

"I- I don't know what to say, Draco. Where'd you get this?" Neville asks, wanting to be sure it came from a responsible place.

"The Weasley's. Not the best place, but I'll take it. I knew it would interest you." Draco shrugs.

"Wait..." Neville squints up at the taller boy. The Gryffindor has gotten quite clever. "How do I know you aren't just lying? How do I know it's not fake?" he asks. It's a win-win situation. If he takes part of it, and it's real, he has Draco in his clutches for at least a few minutes, and if he refuses or takes it and it doesn't work, he'll know it was fake.

"W- well!" Draco exclaims. "I thought we- we were friends." Neville just smiles evilly, relishing the fact that the fate of their friendship turning into something more is in his hands. "Whatever! I'll prove it to you." and so Draco drinks a sip of the potion before handing Neville the rest of it. Neville couldn't be more ecstatic to see the result.

"So?" Neville asks. "Draco? Do you have anything to say to me? Any three words?"

Draco states off into space for a while until he finally looks down at Neville with a suggestive smile. "Oh yeah," he crosses his arms. "if those words are, 'I love myself!'" he gives a short laugh and struts past Neville. "Out of my way, blood-traitor."

Neville scoffs, feeling as if he's been tricked out of not receiving the love the potion gives. He runs after the other blonde with a frenzied expression. "Where're you going? Draco?" he calls after the Slytherin who he can't catch up with.

Draco turns around with a smug smirk on his face. "I'm going to Honeydukes to treat myself to a nice butterbeer for all the good work I've done for the Dark Lord today." he says proudly, crossing his arms in a way that makes it appear as if he's hugging himself. Well, at least this would only last a few minutes since he only took a sip. Hopefully.

"Wait, what?" Neville bursts out. "Draco! What have you been doing?" he screams. Draco doesn't respond, and instead walks on, acting as if he can't hear what Neville has said.

Shortly, Neville gets the answer to his question in the form of a screaming Leanne.

* * *

Neville arrives shortly to his secret lesson with Professor Dumbledore. On his way, he meets Harry who is just coming back from his. The black-haired boy seems disgruntled by whatever it was he had seen. Later that day Neville would find out it was about the Gaunt family and their ties to He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Neville has no idea what this lesson will be about yet though since he and Harry are having different ones. He hopes it's just as exciting as Harry's.

Once in Dumbledore's office, he took his time in particular to look at Fawkes. He was a beautiful phoenix with feathers of flames. The bird lit up the entire room. The pensieve also lit up the room slightly. There were no other lights. Neville, aside from the red and blue glows of Fawkes and the pensieve, was completely in the dark. Dumbledore was slightly illuminated by the light of the pensieve.

"Neville," it's the first word Dumbledore has spoken to him. He hadn't even greeted him. "I will only say this once. I don't like being lied to." he turns to face the boy.

"I understand, sir." Neville replies, slightly scared by this new tone. It's soft, yet serious. It sends the message that he wants to make sure Neville will want to respond to his next question with the absolute truth.

"Do you believe Draco Malfoy have something to do with what happened with Ms. Bell?" Dumbledore asks.

Neville blinked rapidly. He wasn't too shocked that Dumbledore might question him about Draco, but what happened to Katie was something no one expected and had just happened, so there weren't many details about the incident. Nevertheless, Neville answers what he firmly believes, "No."

Dumbledore nods. "This is the truth?" he asks.

"Yes. That is what I believe, sir." Neville affirms.

"Well, now, we may get on with the lesson." Dumbledore says happily, definitely less serious than before. He walks over to the pensieve and places his hand on its edge, drawing out a jar with a white, glowing hair in it. "You may not like this one at first, but it's imperative that you learn these lessons; I'm sure you understand."

"I'm prepared." Neville promises.

"Let's go then."

* * *

AN: Chapter 10 and 11 don't deal with what Neville and Dumbledore see, so I'm going to make a chapter 9.5 sometime soon.

Also! Let's talk about endgame! SPOILERS! Endgame pairings are:

-Haville(Neville/Harry) obviously

-Dramione(Draco/Hermione) also obvi

-Ginny/Luna

and everybody's favorite!  
-Cedric/Delphi Dark'ness Dementia Lestrange Riddle Raven Way Rowle Diggory

Also! I don't know what endgame for Ron should be! I'm thinking either Pansy or Padma? Maybe even Astoria?


	11. 10-Singing in the Shower

Author's Note: okay so there are a couple SU songs in this chapter, but I might edit them out later. I just found it fitting~ of course the lyrics would've likely been changed to fit their situations and in this universe(lol) and the songs would've been made up completely by the characters

* * *

Harry always hated taking his morning shower. He couldn't say that Privet Drive was the best home he had ever had, but he could at least say he preferred the bathrooms there. They were solitary there, but here at Hogwarts he had to take community showers. Everyone got their own protected stall, but he still worried someone might peek in while he was bathing. He hoped his stall was protected by magic. After six years, he's gotten used to it though.

"Singin' a song, don't cost nothin'," Harry sings as he soaps up his sponge. "palling around, don't cost nothin'. So how do I spend, all this money? I'd rather spend my time with-"

Harry jumps a foot in the air as he hears a loud argument break out in the sixth year boy's bathroom. It's Dean and Seamus, they're fighting over their previously romantic relationship and whether or not they should get back together. Dean wants to, but Seamus doesn't. Unfortunately, this heated discussion causes Harry to lose the soap he was just holding, so he has to go get it back.

Harry wraps a towel around his waist and walks out of the stall. He looks around suspiciously before slipping away in the direction of the soap trail. It leads into another stall. Harry rolls his eyes. His bad luck continues. Anyhow, he knocks on the wall of the stall. The person inside is also singing, and seems to be unaware of what's happening around him.

"Hey, I- I- er... um... I lost my soap? I kinda need it back." Harry pleads.

Whoever's in the stall doesn't answer, and keeps on singing. It's something about being over. He has surprisingly good pipes, but the voice is unrecognizable.

"Hey, can I have my soap back?" Harry asks. No-one answers. "Hallo?" he persists. No answer there, either. He decides he has no choice but to be a hypocrite, and peek in.

He was only going to pull back the curtain a tad and talk to the person in the stall to get his soap back, but when he saw who was inside, he couldn't help but pull the entire curtain back and step inside.

It's Neville, and he seems blissfully unaware of his visitor as he keeps singing. It seems to be a song about his unrequited love for Draco, but Harry doesn't care about that.

He cares about the huge, dark red, spiral scar that takes up Neville's entire back.

Harry audibly gasps at the sight of it, and Neville is finally aware of the shorter boy in his shower stall. He quickly pulls a sponge over his privates(it's obviously too small though), and backs away into the wall underneath the shower head.

"W- what are you doing here? Please get out." he stammers while looking away from Harry. His face is completely scarlet.

Harry decides it'd be best to ignore what he's seeing, so he focuses on what he was originally there for. "I've been trying to tell you that I need my soap back." he huffs. "It slipped under your shower curtain."

"Well how was I supposed to know?" Neville mutters under his breath as he bends down to pick up the soap. He hands it to Harry with a perturbed look and shoos him away.

After Harry finished his shower, he began brushing his teeth at one of the ten sinks. He was slightly embarrassed by what he had just done, but it wasn't his fault Neville was practically numb to the world.

Speak of the Gryffindor; the fellow black-haired boy came out with his clothes on and a towel wrapped around his head. He removed it and began drying his messy, wet hair surprisingly aggressively.

"Sorry about earlier." Harry says after even more aggressively spitting out his toothpaste.

"It's fine, I should've paid more attention." Neville smiles that same, irritating, goofy smile. Harry looks at him with a furrowed brow and quickly looks away once he stops smiling. "I guess it just says a lot about our relationship."

"What do you mean?" Harry asks honestly.

"Well, there's a magical barrier in each shower stall. It keeps people you don't trust from getting into your stall. Most people don't out of respect, but those who do come in are only people that you have the highest level of trust and respect for." Neville explains.

"I never knew that." Harry smiles, looking in the wide mirror at himself and Neville. So he actually trusts him that much? Harry asked the blonde this to affirm it.

"If we're going to be partners... I guess I have to." Neville shrugs. "That doesn't matter though because..." It seems as if he's getting ready to put his hand on Harry's, but he flinches and puts his hands together when Harry removes his from the sink and puts it behind his head. "Well, I trust you anyway. I always have." Neville manages to say without any awkwardness in his tone or voice.

Harry sat at breakfast, not thinking about the Quidditch game today- which was unusual for him- but instead thinking about the scar he saw on Neville's back. It was extremely big compared to his own lightning scar from the killing curse of Voldemort. He knew where Neville's scar came from. He knew it had to be the Cruciatus Curse, and he knew it was from Bellatrix Lestrange. It was different from Harry's scar in the way that he was sure Neville couldn't hear Bellatrix's voice because of it. He would've heard it by now.

What he didn't want to hear was Ron and Hermione's bickering about something that happened last night.

"SHUT UP, RON!" Hermione screams at the freckled boy sitting two seats away from her.

"Why don't you! You don't know anything about Malfoy, and yet you claim to know everything about him! Just like everything else you're involved in!" he grunts every word out erratically.

"You don't either! At least I've actually spent time with him." Hermione folds her arms angrily.

"Let's just stop talking about this." Ron says, rubbing his temples in a disgruntled fashion. "Harry, how do you feel about the game today?"

"Lucky. I think we'll be pretty lucky today." Harry smirks to himself, getting a good idea.

"What makes you say that?" Ron asks, slightly worried, and also slightly excited.

"You'll see."

* * *

It's nighttime. Everyone's been partying with Harry since he led the Gryffindor team to victory. He enjoyed it, but someone just wasn't there. Ron and Hermione were, but it was a different someone.

Once Harry goes up to the sixth year dorms, he finds Neville sitting on his bed, looking down at a piece of paper in his hands. It appears to be a gum wrapper.

"Hey, what's up?" Harry asks, sitting beside him on the four poster.

Neville looks up at the boy next to him with a dismal expression. His eyes appear tired and red, and he's frowning a very dreary frown. Harry would take the goofy smile over this any day.

Thankfully, in a few seconds, Neville does smile, but it's more downbeat than silly. He turns his attention to the ceiling and just, dispiritedly smiles. "Do you know what it's like?" he asks vaguely.

Harry shakes his head. He doesn't have the first clue as to what Neville is talking about. "No." he answers truthfully.

"I mean, having someone close to you, who you want to talk to, but they're just so confused about everything that they can't... I don't know... respond; reply; talk back to you." Neville explains. "They don't know what- what it is you're saying."

Harry is silent.

"Do you know how that feels?"

"No." Harry says again.

"It's agony." Neville comments. "You might think I'm talking about my parents. Am I correct?"

Harry nods.

"You're half-correct. I was at first, but the more I think about it... I'm talking about someone else too." Neville says before getting up and getting into bed, still holding onto that gum wrapper.

Harry still sits solemnly on the edge of Neville's bed.

"Don't you remember yesterday?" Neville whispers. It's dark now, since Neville put out the candlelight.

"Of course." Harry says. "It was horrible what happened to Katie."

"That's all you remember?"

"What else happened?" Harry asks.

"I'm sorry." Neville says and turns over, hiding his face from Harry.

"Just tell me," Harry says, getting further up on the bed.

"I can't. You'd hate me." Neville responds, moving his legs away from Harry.

"I can take it." Harry pleads, getting so close, that he's literally touching Neville's back with his nose, legitimately being that much shorter than him. He decides to cover up as well.

"That Obliviation Charm really worked well, didn't it?" Neville stares unsurely into Harry's confused eyes.

"Tell me everything."

* * *

AN: Also, I wanted to note that at this point, Neville is in full denial of what Draco has been doing. Harry is sort of just existing?

that Crucio scar tho

also soz but chapter 9.5, while being v important, will either be uploaded after chapter eleven or twelve idk


	12. 9-5-Meeting Memories

AN: OMG I can't believe this story has 2,250 views! Thank you so much you guys! I want to make a cover for this story(I have the Wattpad one but I'd rather not use it) but idk what it should be! Please leave suggestions in the reviews :)

Also, I know Voldemort came to Hogwarts long before Bellatrix, but I like the idea of them going to school together and meeting there :) also it's really imperative to my storyline if they show up at the school together ok bi

* * *

Neville swallows hard and rubs his eyes. He hates going through the pensieve, it's always a bad experience. It feels as if you're diving headfirst into a pond without any swimwear on.

Neville blinked rapidly. He only barely recognized where he was. He was at Platform 9 and 3/4. The scarlet train shone brightly, but the expressions on the kids boarding shine brighter. There were two girls chatting excitedly about Hogwarts and how excited they were. The memory seemed to following the elder girl, however. She had long curly black hair and pasty white skin. The younger girl was a brunette. They seemed to be by themselves.

"Cissy, you have to go back to mother." the elder girl says, stomping her foot in impatience. Her hair bounces because of this. She appears to be eleven, and Neville finds her insanely adorable. She's like a mini-Hermione.

"No! I wanna go to magic school too!" the younger girl, named, or possibly nicknamed "Cissy" says back to who is presumably her sister.

"No you don't. There's a lot of mudblood here." the elder girl says, running towards the entrance into the train. She's definitely not like Hermione, then. Neville's only a little taken aback. She stands at the train door with her luggage inside. "Go back to mum, now. You can't come, you're only seven." she commands her little sister.

"This is your first year and I want it to be mine too!" Cissy screeches as most kids do. Neville runs to get into the train as the elder girl closes the door on her sister. He watches out the window with her as her sister ran alongside the train. Neville smiled, they seemed like such stereotypical siblings.

At this point Neville wasn't paying much attention to Dumbledore, and preferred to explore the memory for himself. Dumbledore took note of this.

"Why, Neville! You're much unlike your counterpart." he gleams, admiring the boy's adventurous side.

"Oh, sir, how so?" Neville asks, following the black-haired girl.

"You seem to prefer walking around on your own. Harry stays extremely close to me, and always asks me questions."

"Sorry, headmaster, I'd just rather ask questions later." Neville replies. Dumbledore nods.

Neville follows the girl around the train. She opens a compartment door which holds who looks to be a male first year brunette boy. He's all alone, and feels every bit of the loneliness. It reminds Neville of himself before Hermione found him.

"Hello." the girl greets the boy. She seems extremely indifferent to him as she looks him up and down.

"Hi." he smiles weakly. "Are you a first year?"

"Yes. And you?" she asks. He nods.

Neville smiles at their cute interaction. "Do they get together?" he asks Dumbledore.

"Yes, but not in the way you might imagine. Quite unfortunate, really." Dumbledore sighs and pushes his glasses up on his nose.

The girl sits on her luggage with crossed legs on the seat across from the boy. She hums for a few seconds.

"Aren't you going to ask my name?" the boy asks, dumbfounded.

"I don't care much for it. You're not muggle-born, are you?" she snaps suddenly.

"No, I come from a wizard family. If you had asked me my name, you'd know. _I_ know who _you_ are. You're a Black. I can tell by your hair."

"I never said I didn't know who you are." the girl sneered. "You're a Lestrange. I don't need your first name to know you."

The door suddenly opens. It's so quick that Neville jumps. He backs up to see the boy entering the train compartment. Neville knows who this is. It's Tom Riddle. The young Tom Riddle. Perhaps he was better known as He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.

The girl is noticeably more intrigued by Tom than the Lestrane boy. She bites her lips and blushes. "Who are you?" she asks, looking as if she might space out and lose herself in his perceived handsomeness.

"My name's Tom Riddle. I don't much like my name though. Too many other people have it. So call me Riddle. Or Marvelo, my middle name. I don't mind either of those." he replies, taking absolutely no notice of the girl's sudden affection for him.

"I'm Rudolphus Lestrange." the brunette says perkily, blushing and happy to see someone who seems actually interested in him.

Rudolphus Lestrange? Neville knows what this means immediately. It means that girl is Bellatrix Lestrange.

Neville backs up against the door and tries to exit, by finds that behind the door is just a bunch of white space; nothingness. Dumbledore snatches him back into the compartment where a seemingly important conversation is taking place.

"Please, just let me leave! I don't want to listen to this! I don't want to listen to her!" Neville screams.

"This is integral history, Mr. Longbottom, I assure you." Dumbledore sighs. He clearly doesn't want to put him through this. "Harry is learning about his post-Hogwarts years. You must learn about his pre-Hogwarts years. We had to retrieve the memories from Bellatrix Lestrange. I'm sorry, but perhaps this will give you some insight into why she did the things she did."

Neville looked between Bellatrix and Tom. He already knew why she did the things she did.

It was the reason why he had knowingly lied to Dumbledore.

* * *

AN: So this was a very relatively short chapter! It was just an add-on to Chapter nine really. And so we find out in this chapter that Dreville in _**this**_ story, is **toxic**. If Draco and Neville were to get together, it would turn out like Bellatrix and Voldemort in this AU unfortunately. Does this change Neville's mind about Draco though? We'll have to wait and see.


	13. 11-Toiling With Trouble

AN: Sorry it took so long to update! I've been very busy with other projects! Hope you like!

* * *

Neville didn't want any trouble today. However, it looked like trouble was all he was going to get after what had happened to Katie Bell yesterday.

Now Neville was walking back to the Gryffindor room. It was a beautiful day, the sun was setting even though it was only six, which meant the days were getting shorter. Brown leaves were sprinkled throughout the Hogwarts grounds. Some leaves were drifting through the open windows. He expected to see the dead foliage scattered throughout the halls, but he didn't expect to see Draco Malfoy standing by the Gryffindor portrait.

"Merry Christmas." Draco smirks, sizing up Neville.

"It's closer to Thanksgiving. What's going on?" Neville asks with a nervous tone to his voice but not his actions.

"You remember that love potion I gave you?" he asks. Neville nods. Draco takes note of this and pulls out a box of chocolates from under his robes. "From Romilda Vane, with love. I snatched these because they were intoxicated with a love potion. I can put yours in and overtake the effect. I know you like him." he grins. Neville wonders if there's a sinister tone he isn't seeing.

"Draco." Neville says seriously. "This isn't a good idea."

"Just say, 'Amortentia Verita'." Draco says, pushing the box of chocolates in Neville's face. He is definitely smiling sinisterly now as he whispers something Neville can't really hear. What does he have to gain from this?

"Draco, no. It's not right to use these, I-" he pauses his speech, taking out the love potion. Why did he just do that? Then, it hits him. Draco is using the Imperius Curse on him, but it hasn't taken full effect yet. "Draco, please. You know this isn't right- you could get- taken away-" he grunts, trying to hold himself back, in-between every word.

"It's too bad I don't care." Draco says, eyes dark and narrow with demise. He snatches the potion from Neville. "Now say it! Say 'Amortentia Verita'!" he screeches before taking off the cork, sending wafts of wood and nymphaea flowers through the air. He's lucky no-one else is in the hallways right now.

"Amortentia Verita." Neville says, stuck in a trance that he can't escape from. It feels as if he's watching himself do these things from a first person perspective. He just can't control himself, Draco is controlling him.

Draco pours the potion all over the chocolates in the box. "Oops." he says sarcastically. He shoves the box into Neville's arms. "Take these to Harry and make him eat one. When you do that, you're done." Draco sneers and leaves.

In the Gryffindor common room, Harry sits on the couch attempting to finish his Transfiguration homework. He appears to be struggling, but Hermione is also there, she's tutoring him.

The black-haired hero looks up at the blonde now walking in with a box of chocolates. He smiles as he's given the box.

"These are for you." Neville says almost robotically. "I know you're torn up right now about Katie."

Hermione catches this immediately. "Neville.

Are you quite alright?" she asks with concern. He nods.

"These are amazing!" Harry exclaims happily.

Neville shakes his head. He feels his chest and paces a few steps around in a circle, feeling extremely weird tingles surge throughout his body as if his whole body was asleep rather than say, his leg. He smooths his hair back and looks wide-eyed at Harry.

"You didn't just eat that, did you?" Neville asks.

"Well, yeah. You just gave them to me." Harry scoffs.

"I was Imperiused!" Neville shrieks, pulling at his hair. "That had a love potion in it!"

"Who would put someone under an Imperius charm just to pull a prank like this?" Hermione snickers, face-palming at whoever Imperiused Neville.

"I'll give you one guess." Harry growls. He then coughs dramatically, ruining the entire mood.

"Yeah... Draco." Neville smiles goofily and shrugs.

Hermione stands and shakes her head. She walks away to the sixth year girl's dormitory, laughing. Harry stares after her coldly from the couch. He soon turns his attention to Neville and slumps over on the couch.

"I hate that Slytherin so much." Harry groans.

"Well, I guess you're just gonna have to deal with it because I can't take it back." Neville shrugs, sitting down on the couch next to him.

Neville thinks for a moment and then leans against Harry. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Harry was kinda cute, and he was someone he at least had interest in. Perhaps it would open up both of their hearts. They would probably have a better relationship than he and Draco would.

Still, Neville always adored Draco, and didn't seem to be able to overcome that crush. It was embedded within him like a dagger which he couldn't pull out without causing more pain than putting it in in the first place. He had to pull it out sometime, but he didn't want to do it himself, and hopefully Harry would be the one to do it for him.

Harry thinks for a moment and then leans against Neville. "I'm probably going have to go throw up." he says quietly. "I'll tell you when I start to go under, by the way."

"Harry... do you like me? In that way?" Neville suddenly asks with a chuckle. "I know I've asked you that before, but..."

"You want to know if the answer's changed?" Harry finishes for him. Neville nods. "Will this answer your question?"

Neville furrows his brow and ponders what this means. He only has a fraction of a second to wonder about Harry's response before the bespectacled boy plants a kiss on Neville's cheek, spreading a red flush from his lips to above his eyes. Harry then puts his lips on Neville's, and they move in perfect synchronized motion, tongues wrapping around each other and spreading heat and blush further up the boys' faces. Finally, at the apex of the kiss, they stop, with Neville pulling away. Harry puts his forehead on the taller boy's chest, snickering gleefully. Had he gone under yet?

"Woah." Neville gasps, looking down at the shorter boy. "Did you... erm... perhaps want to go to Homeydukes and talk about our relationship perhaps over some butterbeers? I don't know... it's okay if you don't want to- I- I guess." Neville stammers.

"You mean like a date, Neville?" Harry replies dryly. Yup, Harry definitely hadn't gone under yet.

Neville nods.

"Sure. Let's go." Harry rolls his eyes.

Honeydukes was typically practically overflowing with the young wizard and witch students of Hogwarts. Today however, there was only Neville and Harry, and Angelina Johnson in a corner.

Slurping a butterbeer quote noisily, Neville had hoped to avoid any awkwardness between himself and Harry. He hoped that the date would turn out well.

"So are you okay with public displays of affection?" Harry asks, leaning on his knuckles and looking at Neville with adoration. Now, Neville thinks Harry is under the amortentia's grasp.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Neville chuckles.

"Well, if we're going to be dating, I figure I might ask. What are your interests besides gardening? Any other hobbies?"

"I like reading. Not to Hermione's extent of course. Just for fun, you know. I practice magic from time to time and I dabble in cooking. I also like long walks on the lakeside." Neville chuckles again. "Cliche, I know. It's true though. I just like talking."

Harry laughs aloud, shocking Neville. He had never seen the boy so animated and jovial. "No, no. It's perfect. So what do you think of- of Professor Slughorn?" Harry snickers. "And his Slug Club?"

"Awful. Truly awful. I've never ran into a man I detested so much. He only cares about the shining stars."

"If the members of that club are shining stars, then you're a streaking comet." Harry gazes dreamily into Neville's eyes. "I mean it, I really do."

"So how long have you liked me?" Neville asks, genuinely curious. He wonders if being under amortentia will allow him to tell the truth.

"Since... since the start of the year. January actually. Well, it reached the point where I knew I kind of liked you when we found out we had the matching patronuses, but I've been attached since the attack on the Ministry." Harry admits with a red flush.

Neville sips his butterbeer smugly. He's starting to have doubts that Harry is under the love potion.

"What do you think of Romilda Vane? Sheesh, that girl's actually been trying to get with me since the start of the year." Harry says with a disgusted expression.

"Nice girl, but she has ants in her pants if you catch my drift." Neville says and takes a huge slurp of butterbeer.

Out of the corner of his eye, Neville watches as Draco Malfoy pushes open the Honeydukes doors and strides over to Neville. He pokes him on the shoulder, much to the two black-haired boys' disgust and whispers in his ear, "See me in the cellar."

Neville gives a fake cough and Draco leaves to the cellar door. "I need to go, but I'll be right back." he promises, getting up to leave.

Under the cellar, Draco was sneezing like crazy. There were dust particles floating around in every inch of the small space. Neville jumped down into the cellar, kicking up dust bunnies and almost sending Draco into a panic.

"Allergies?" Neville teases.

"No, Longass, I just don't like dust. Listen. You can't let Harry snitch on me about the necklace. He has a meeting with Dumbledore today, right?" Draco asks, panicking, inhaling, exhaling, panicking, inhaling, exhaling, and so on.

"How did you know?"

"It's the same day every month, Longass."

"Hey. Quit calling me 'Longass'. I have a name, Malfoy." Neville growls, stepping closer to Draco as intimidation tactic. He's not surprised to find that it doesn't work.

"Whatever, Longbottom." Draco pushes Neville to the ground, making Neville yell out in pain from hitting the hard surface.

"If Harry hears about this-"

"He won't hear about it." Draco says, pulling out his wand quickly. Neville pulls his out just as quickly in response. "OBLIVIATE!"

And nothing happens.

The flash of white appeared repelled before it had made its way halfway out of the wand. Neville had repelled it without saying a word.

"Harry will be hearing about this." Neville says, rising to his feet and exiting the cellar.

When they went back to Hogwarts, Neville told Harry everything that had happened. Of course, being Harry, he got extremely upset, and Neville had to exit the room because his rage was highly explosive.

Neville came back in later to find Harry and Ron arguing.

"Harry, c'mon, let's get you to Slughorn! Or Snape! Even Snape! I don't care, we just need to get you to someone for an antidote." Ron yells.

"Ron, I'm fine, I just want to see Neville." Harry says, looking as if he had joined the mile high club within the past hour. He had definitely, without a doubt in the wide wide wizarding world, gone under.

Neville walks into the room and stands completely still, stiff as a board when Harry looks over at him. Harry smiles creepily and immediately flings himself onto Neville. He peppers him with kisses and shoves him against the wall.

"I thought I'd never see you again. I was craving your attention." Harry moans, his voice barely above a whisper.

Neville looks at the shorter boy unsurely. He leans his head over and screams out, "RON! HELP!"

"You did this!" Ron screeches, full of anger. "If it wasn't for you, he wouldn't be acting like this! People don't just fall in love with others like this naturally." he says quick and shortly.

"I didn't do this! Draco imperiused-" Neville was cut off by Harry attaching his lips onto Neville's and attempting to make out with him.

"C'mon, we need to get him to Slughorn." Ron nearly hyperventilates.

Neville nods. He looks down at Harry. "Harry, we're going to go somewhere private where we can-"

"Make love?" Harry grins like an idiot.

"Sure. We need to go. Now."

Neville picks Harry up bridal style and carries out of the Gryffindor dorms, common room, and tower.

He carries him through the halls, gaining weird looks from those not in the Gryffindor house, especially those in Slytherin.

Ron runs behind the two. He's stopped by Astoria Greengrass, a Slytherin who says, "Hey! Let them go! They're not bothering you!"

"It's- it's not that it's-"

"It's weird? Isn't it? In your honest opinion? A boy liking another boy?"

"Well, yes. It- it is." Ron stutters

"Get over it. It's their business who they like. Not yours." Astoria huffs and leaves, stamping her feet.

Ron gulps and thinks for a minute. He nods and begins following Neville and Harry again.

Neville kicks the door of the Potions Master, Professor Slughorn. He brings in Harry and sets him down in an empty seat.

Professor Slughorn is absolutely shocked at what is going on.

"Why have you come in? What are you here for?" Slughorn demands to know.

"I need an antidote for amortentia." Neville screams.

"Well I need an antidote for sexual tension." Harry mutters, loosening his tie.

* * *

Harry blinks in confusion. "I actually said that?" he asks, blushing. "I remember everything except what happened with the amortentia."

Neville laughs short of breath from the tension between the two being face to face. "Then why didn't you say so?" he asks.

"I liked hearing you talk you about it. You- you just have a way of explaining things that sounds like a- like a story."

"Yeah, well, Professor Slughorn must have only obliviated your memory of the amortentia's effects."

"So what now?"

"I dunno. Do you want to..."

"Date?"

"If you'd like."

Harry pecked Neville on the forehead and turned over, allowing Neville to spoon with him. There's silence for a while between the two.

"Yeah." Harry says softly. "We're in this together. We're a team. We're the... best..."

Harry eventually nods off and falls into a deep sleep wrapped in Neville's long and heat-giving arms. Neville follows his lead and falls asleep with Harry under his chin and in his grasp.

Their prophetic destiny had finally reached its climax, and now they were headed towards the resolution of defeating Voldemort.

* * *

AN: So we have brought resolution to the will they won't they and Ron's homophobic subplot! Also Draco is a dik


	14. 12-A Very Slug Club Christmas

AN: So it's been a while, huh? I hadn't felt like updating so I didn't. I reread everything and decided to get back on track lol. Also, I've been super iffy about it, but I've decided that in this story, Neville will for sure be a blonde. I've been going back and forth in this story, but from here on out he is blonde like in the books.

* * *

Harry didn't want to go to the Slug Club Christmas Party, but he was expected to go so he found that the best option was to attend. It wasn't going to be a fun night, but at least he knew Hermione and Neville would be there if he needed someone to talk to.

He didn't even know who he was going to invite since those two were already going, and Ron still thought it was weird to ask another boy to a party. He was getting better though. And besides, Harry broke up with Neville anyway because Neville hadn't told him about his secret meetings with Draco. Harry tolerated that the two blondes used to be friends, but didn't like the hypocrisy of Neville helping Draco even knowing his cruelty.

Nevertheless, Harry ended up taking Luna Lovegood from a suggestion by her closeted girlfriend, Ginny Weasley.

Harry thought Ginny would at least have the nerve to take Luna to the party as a friend, but seeing how her brother is Ron, he quickly found the reasoning to understand that choice.

Luna could not have been more ecstatic whenever Harry had asked her. She was honored to be asked by the "Chosen One" and was extremely anxious towards the prospect that she would get to spend the whole evening with her girlfriend, on the sly of course.

Harry walks into the party with Luna and high hopes. Of course the blonde immediately runs off to find her ginger beauty, and Harry is left alone at the entrance. Cormac McLaggen shoves Harry at the entrance as he walks in with Hermione. She stops right there and quickly runs to Harry, looking him up and down and making sure he's okay.

"I'm completely fine, Hermione, it was just a shove." Harry explains, smiling graciously for her concern.

"I'm gonna go talk to him." she growls, stomping off.

To be completely honest with himself and everyone else, Harry has no idea why Hermione would be dating McLaggen. They're complete opposites and plus, he's a huge jerk. Who would ever like him?

Apparently even she doesn't because she's walking over to Draco Malfoy. She left Cormac at the punch table. Was Draco even supposed to be there? Perhaps he was someone else's date. But who here would've taken _that prat_? Oh, yeah. Neville.

Harry looks around for the blonde with one eyebrow raised and the other low. Why would he have taken Draco after what he had done a week ago? It just made no sense! Neville made no sense! Harry was slowly attempting at coping with this.

"NEVILLE FRANKLIN LONGBOTTOM!" Harry screeches like a hippogriff above the noisy crowd. It wasn't loud enough for the crowd to enter into silence, they continued their noisy chatter.

Neville jumps at the sound of his full name and turns around to see who it was calling his name. The blonde is carrying a silver tray with drinks on it, and his suit and bow tie indicates that he is actually a waiter.

"Harry, you know my middle name is Gardener," Neville says, shrinking under Harry's glare as he does so.

"Good guess though. Did you not get invited?" Harry asks, confused at his attire.

"Nope, I quit the club as soon as I was signed on. I took a job as a waiter so I could see you." Neville explained, brushing his hair out of his face and straightening his bow tie with his free hand.

Harry scoffs. "Are we just that good of friends?" he asked, seeing if he would tempt at least an 'I love you' from Neville which he so desperately needed from his ex after the rollercoaster of emotions the whole year had been.

Neville ignores this, turning quickly around to see someone pouring a potion into the punch bowl. "Hey! Don't be such a freaking prat!" Neville yells at the wizard. They promptly run off. Neville turns back to Harry. "Huh? Yeah I guess. I wanted to just hang out, y'know?" he smiles that goofy smile again. It seemed now that Harry was begrudgingly falling for it now that he associated it with the man he loved. Or was it just that is was previously the other way around? He gave a light titter when the grin appeared on Neville's face.

"Of course." Harry replies. Then, he remembered his reasoning for shouting Neville's full name. "I came over here to ask a question. Did you bring Draco here as a date?"

"I'm not allowed. I'm a waiter, Harry." he chuckles in response. Suddenly, his face grows dim. "Figures you'd accuse me like that. I would have appreciated the invite."

"I figured it might not have been you," Harry says, cursing a little under his breath. "I'm really sorry about that by the way. I already asked Luna, you know. If I turned her down it would break her heart, and Ginny would break my everything." Harry says seriously. It wasn't a joke. Neville acknowledges this and nods.

Then, Neville's face twists into fear. "He shouldn't be here. Draco... shouldn't be here. He wasn't on the list." he gulps. "You don't think he's come here to—to..."

"No, Neville. I don't." Harry says, watching as Draco begins making out with Hermione in a corner. It's fiery and passionate. Harry's hand balls up into a fist, and his face became red with anger. How could Hermione be doing this? How could she like Draco Malfoy? He called her such horrible names when they were younger, he always fought with him and Ron, and he bullied them constantly! There was no reason at all for Hermione to like him.

Neville watches with his mouth open. It seemed that they were the only witnesses. Everyone else was paying attention to partying. "I'm sorry, but, you didn't... like her?" he asked, his voice quiet and hurt at the last two words.

"No. Of course not, Neville." Harry shakes his head at his naive and backwards love interest. "It's just that... That..." he struggles to find the right words to say.

"Draco is a prat?" Neville asks. "Yeah, I don't know why I ever liked him." he admits, blushing and scratching his head.

 _You still like him_ , Harry thinks. Trying not to arouse anger, Harry nods in agreement. What did Neville see in Draco Malfoy? Perhaps it was only jealousy talking at this point, but Harry detested Draco with a passion even though Neville seemed almost entranced with him. It was as if Neville was bound to Draco by the hip with the bondage ropes of love that could never actually be real.

Now Draco is leading Hermione onto the dance floor. The two don't look half bad. Not bad at all. Tonight was one of the only times Harry actually found Draco to be quite handsome, though he pales in comparison to Hermione. She dons a beautiful, red and gold strapless ballroom gown, though it's mostly gold with red accents. Draco is draped in a stylish green and silver scarf with a black tuxedo and a tie of the same color. Their hairstyles are changed to suit their attire. Hermione's hair is completely straight for once, and Draco's is slicked back with more care than usual. The two truly do look like the perfect couple.

This, however, makes Harry even angrier. Why were they so perfect? What made them so perfect? They hated each other! Harry made a mental note to spy on them later.

"I'm gonna go have some of that punch. I think a muggle-born spiked it. Should be interesting, then." Neville departs towards the punch bowl. Harry is left to his lonesome.

Harry stares after his lover before becoming startled by the girl he took as a date in the first place. Luna smiles meekly at him.

"They're having karaoke. I was wondering if you wanted to sing with me?" Luna asks with a hint of pink on her cheeks. "I wanted to duet with someone but Ginny's voice is atrocious and I don't know anyone else here."

"That's not true, you know Hermione, and Neville." Harry was puzzled at her statement.

"Oh, well Hermione is dancing with Draco and Neville is drunk, so..." Luna shrugs.

"What?" Harry looks around for the blonde hectically. He spots him chatting it up with Seamus Finnegan, his other ex, by the punch bowl. "I'll sing later, Luna. I've got to deal with something right now." he brushes her off.

Harry stomps off towards Neville with a beyond enraged expression. The blonde just guffaws as Harry stamps to his location next to the confectionaries. Seamus is actually taken aback.

"What's wrong with you, dude? You like, need to chill." Neville laughs, waving around his goblet.

Harry smacks the goblet down on the ground, shocking Neville and Seamus. The latter just walks away, but Neville stands his ground, towering over Harry.

"You knew there was something wrong with the punch!" Harry reasons with the taller boy.

"Does it really matter to you? Why don't you go hang out with Luna since you like her so much?" Neville throws his hands up.

The two look over at Luna who is singing karaoke by herself. Something about a tale as old as time and a song as old as rhyme.

Harry bites his cheeks and stares up at Neville with the utmost of fury and anger. He steps closer to him and let all his rage out, screaming, "You don't even like me anyway! Why should you care?"

This was the final straw for Neville. He looks down at Harry with an anguished and tired expression which soon turned into irritation. "WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I LOVE YOU?" he screeches at the top of his lungs.

Harry's heart drops. His eyes were wide open with shock. He gulps. He was wrong, so wrong. He had no idea how much he had hurt Neville. He adjusts his glasses and leans in for a kiss which Neville was oblivious to, but was cut off by a familiar voice.

"WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I LOVE YOU?"

It was coming from a Patronus, a doe, and it was facing Draco, who had been dancing with Hermione. Harry is quick to notice the wand in Neville's hand. He wonders.

"Neville... Did you-"

Neville turns towards Harry with an aghast face. His lips quivers. "That one isn't mine. I know it's weird but, mines a little pudgier and it has pointier ears and it's kind of-"

"Okay okay. I get it but- I don't think Malfoy does," Harry says, attempting to shut up Neville before he got carried away. Harry was sure the Patronus wasn't Neville's because he would've seen the silvery light shoot from out of his wand. It had to have came from behind.

Draco stands on the dance floor looking down with a bright red face. Hermione has her arms crossed and is looking away from him with a sour expression. Then, Professor Snape strides up to Draco to talk to him.

"What are you doing here? You weren't invited. Gatecrashing, are we?" he asks snidely. Draco nods. "Well, in that case, come with me." he drags a very reluctant Draco away by the arm.

Neville stares blankly at the crowd of party-goers. Everyone's glaring at him angrily. He ducks away towards the buffet table to put some dishes up. Harry helps to the best of his ability. They both have their backs turned due to the embarrassment of it all.

"You know who—"

"Snape. Who else?" Harry answers as rapidly as he can think, almost reading Neville's mind. "Let's sneak out of here and see what's up with Draco."

"I'm not really into spying." Neville mutters in response to Harry's offer.

"This is your chance to make up for the necklace," Harry says. This successfully convinces Neville.

Under the invisibility cloak that Harry had packed in his pants in such a case as this the two escape the party's watching eyes. They sneak towards Snape's office where Harry predicts Draco will be with his professor.

Harry presses his ear up to the door while Neville watches through the keyhole, not that he can see anything really.

"You can't keep enticing this girl! Are you aware of her blood?" Snape yells, his voice surprisingly loud for once.

"I know she's a mudblood, but she's nice. It's none of your business, anyway." Draco bites back.

"You are biting off more than you can chew. Either stop following the Dark Lord or stop flirting with Granger."

"For your information, we're already dating unlike you and your mudblood friend, Lily."

This must have struck a nerve for the next thing Harry and Neville hear is the crack of a slap. Obviously, Draco wouldn't hit Snape.

"If I hear her name and mudblood mentioned in the same sentence from you or otherwise, the punishment will be much worse, I assure you. Now you must stop associating with him or you'll lose the best thing you've ever had."

Harry and Neville scramble to get up while remaining hidden under their cloak as the door slams open. Draco storms out with a red face and a deeper crimson cheek.

Before Draco leaves the hallway, he shouts, "I know that was your stupid deer patronus! You need to let that woman go!" Then, he leaves before Snape can come after him because when Snape does exit the room, he is very flustered. Neither Harry nor Neville have ever seen him this angry, and that's saying a lot.

"I loved her more than you could ever hope to understand, you little—" Snape brings his hand to his forehead. He needs to calm down. He breathes in and out and goes back into his office, slamming the door behind him.

Harry takes the cloak off and hurriedly folds it under his arms. Neville trails after him as he walks back to their dorm.

"It sounds like Snape really liked her." Neville murmurs to himself. Harry whips around on him with tears streaming down his red face.

"My mother loved my father! Not him!" he shouts between sobs. Neville pulls him into a hug which Harry slides into.

"I know. It's okay. He missed his chance. I just hope Draco follows his advice." Neville mumbles.

They stayed there for what to them seemed like an eternity in each other's arms before regaining themselves and walking on to the Gryffindor Common Room, their relationship rekindled.

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AN: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Will Harry and Neville get back together? Keep reading to find out!

i would love some reviews btw, even just comments on how things are going lmao


	15. 13-Mere Contrivances

AN: sorry this takes so long to update! I don't prewrite this. I do prewrite my other HP story, Of Apples and Oranges which you should check out :)

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Ominous was how Neville described his next meeting with Dumbledore. Again, only blue and red lit the room, and even then it was quite dim. The old professor held a dark mood and didn't seem up for jovial encounters like his usual self.

Neville couldn't help but feel that this was all his fault due to his sins of what really was treason against his headmaster. In his defense, there was no way to truly tell whether or not Draco had anything to do with the crime at hand, but in all fairness, every bit of detail and evidence supported the opposite. Lying to Dumbledore was not something Neville was going to get away with, it seemed.

The headmaster rises from his seat at Neville's arrival like a gargoyle having been awakened. The sight was enough to startle the Gryffindor into stepping back.

"Please, Neville, lend me your thoughts." Dumbledore begins surprisingly pleasantly. "Using the pensieve, could you show me some of your backstory with Draco Malfoy?"

Looking down at the floor, the blonde tries to collect his mindspace into something not internally rambling and raving. How could Dumbledore wish for such an invasion of privacy? He didn't even say please.

"Sure." Neville kicks the ground mindlessly.

"Thank you. I'm sure you understand why I'm asking this?"

"You know I lied." Neville sighs, training his eyes on the portrait of Phineas Black, hanging over Dumbledore.

"I ask that you please look at me when I'm talking to you," Dumbledore says.

"Sorry, Professor." Neville mumbles.

"We must find out where this all started. I know you're hesitant, so I'll show you a memory of mine before you show yours." Dumbledore takes his wand and draws out a long white thread from his forehead, dropping it into the pensieve.

Begrudgingly, Neville sidles over to the pensieve and doesn't even wait for Dumbledore to stick his head in; he goes ahead anyway and dunks it into the slightly opaque blue water.

He opens his eyes and next thing he knows, he's in the Slytherin Common Room. Neville knows this place well as he had been going in to help Draco with his wolfsbane potions. Neville had pondered on why Draco needed them if Hermione was being an animagi, but didn't question it as he had held his end of the deal up. Neville was given the potion, not that he ever used it.

A snow white girl with hair like Hermione's only as black as a crow's struts into the room from the girls' dorms and collapses much like a drama queen. Her sigh lazily fills the air and brings a large male gaze towards her. With a rapid snap of her fingers, it's gone.

Another pale girl but with straight, platinum blonde hair strides in from the halls. She sits on the couch beside the other girl, taking caution to avoid her pointed black heels which would impale her neck if she were to move an inch closer. While the ebony-haired girl is very morose and woeful, the blonde carries an air of concern.

"We need to talk about Riddle." the blonde sighs heavily, pained with the words. Her grimace is sharp and felt extremely pointed.

"There's simply nothing to speak of. What is to talk about with him other than he's the most handsome wizard in all the United Kingdom?" the ebony-haired girl smiles wildly with a hint of crazy that reminds Neville heavily of someone who makes his back ache with a pain like torture.

"Bella, he's killed a first year. We can't excuse him anymore. Word's spreading that he's asked about horcruxes. Dear sister, that's horribly dark magic." the blonde tries to reason, but by the clearly confused eyes of the other, she wasn't getting through.

By the nickname the younger girl had mentioned, Neville pieces together that the black-haired girl is Bellatrix Lestrange. Which means the sister is Narcissa Malfoy. Neville shudders at the realization.

"Cissy, he's my boyfriend. He'd never do anything like that."

"But you just don't know. Look at what everyone else is saying besides what's in your head."

"You're—you're just jealous."

"Don't use that argument on me. I'd argue that I'm happier than you. Listen, Riddle is bad news. He's going to do bad things."

"If you say so."

Narcissa jumps from her seat with piles of frustration deep within her grunt of anger. She stomps out of the room.

Neville stares hard at the floor with his flats balled to his sides. He understands why Dumbledore wanted to show him this memory and why he needs his. It's all about Draco and how bad he is for Neville. But, the blonde doesn't want to accept this. In his eyes, Draco is nothing like Tom Riddle.

"But he could be," Dumbledore says wisely.

"What?"

"I'm guessing you were thinking that Draco wouldn't ever be like Voldemort, but he's in his leagues, Neville." Dumbledore utters. Neville turns away which causes the elder professor to raise a brow. "Neville, because of your relationship to Draco, you may become your own worst enemy."

Neville's olive eyes quickly water with tears which slide down his face like rain on a roof. He grabs his arm and looks at Dumbledore with a pleading look. "I know he can be good."

"Bellatrix knew that too. Or at least, she thought she did." Dumbledore nods. "You may end up just like her, thinking he might change. Please, open your eyes. You are Harry's ally now and he needs all the help he can get."

The blonde rubs his eyes but to no avail. He's still crying harder than he could ever imagine himself doing. Not over Draco anymore, he's stopped thinking of the Slytherin for now, tucking the thought of him in the deepest recess of his mind he possibly can. Now, he's beginning to realize that this isn't about him anymore. It's all about Harry.

"Sir, with all due respect, this shouldn't concern Harry. This should be about me." Neville looks up sadly.

"You're right." Dumbledore removed his glasses and looks away as the pensieve brings them back to the office. "Harry sometimes clouds my vision. I fear that I care too much about him. When we obsess over one person, it is hard to see the people in front of us. This can go too far when you stumble down the wrong path because of it."

Neville nods. "I understand. Do I need to give you a memory now?"

Dumbledore sits down in his chair by his desk. He looks down with a furrowed brow. "No, only when you are ready. I believe I got my point across."

Neville ambles towards the door out into the hallway with his head down, arms crossed, and the latter hidden by his uniform. He's sure Dumbledore is disappointed in him and knows all of this chosen one stuff could be ripped out from under him like a rug. No one really talks about it except Harry and Dumbledore, but even if they do, Neville typically isn't included. Still, there's some part of the whole chosen one shebang that makes him feel important. To strip it away would strip away whatever was left of Neville's pride.

Outside Dumbledore's office, Neville stops at the sight of a dashing Harry. The ebony hair is fleeting and Neville runs to catch up with it.

"What's going on?" he asks, nearly breathless. They're still jogging, though at a slower pace.

"I'm tracking Malfoy. He keeps going somewhere." Harry replies. "I'm following him to see where that is."

Neville nods. His attention is taken away from Harry and his hunt by the golden setting sun. He grabs Harry by the collar and stops him to watch the sky.

"I'm glad we're in this together, but we need to make some compromises." Neville says.

"Malfoy is your compromise. I don't see why we need any more." Harry sneers.

"I'm trying to get away from him, Harry. Have you even thought about the sway I have?"

"I doubt he'd actually listen to you."

"You don't either!"

Harry stared. Neville hadn't realized he'd gotten so loud.

"We should just go find Malfoy." Harry mutters. He walks off. When Neville doesn't follow, he turns around again.

"We should just take things slow, Harry." Neville reasons. "Rushing is what broke us up in the first place."

"We'll stay together this time."

Neville shook his head. "Just watch the sunset with me." he grinned.

Harry lets out a grunt of frustration and stomps off in the direction he was heading before. Upon the realization that Neville still isn't following, he sits across from him, straddling a glassless window.

The two look out at the disappearing sun together.

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AN: it won't be too long before they get back together

also someday I really want to make fan art with Harry and Neville kind of showing off their magical scars :0


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